Nuclear Partition Functions at Temperatures Exceeding 10^10 K

Abstract

Nuclear partition functions were calculated for a grid of temperatures from 1.2x10^10 K to 2.75x10^11 K (1<=kT<=24 MeV) within a Fermi-gas approach, including all nuclides from the proton-dripline to the neutron-dripline with proton number 9<=Z<=85. The calculation is based on a nuclear level density description published elsewhere, thus extending the previous tables of partition functions beyond 10^10 K. Additional high temperature corrections had to be applied.

Comments: 12 pages with 2 figures, accepted by Ap. J. Suppl.; additional material can be downloaded from http://ftp.nucastro.org/astro/fits/partfuncs/