Sensitivity of Nuclear Reaction Rates in X-ray Burst Models

I. Sultana; A. Estrade; B. S. Meyer; H. Schatz

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arXiv · 2510.15441

Sensitivity of Nuclear Reaction Rates in X-ray Burst Models

I. Sultana·A. Estrade·B. S. Meyer·H. Schatz

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Abstract

Type I X-ray bursts (XRBs) are thermonuclear runaways on the surface of accreting neutron stars, powered by rapid proton-capture and alpha-capture processes on neutron-deficient nuclei. Uncertainties in the corresponding reaction rates remain a major limitation in modeling burst light curves and ashes. We present a systematic study of the sensitivity of XRB models to uncertainties in charged-particle-induced reaction rates across a broad parameter space of accretion rates and fuel compositions in low-mass X-ray binaries. The study proceeds in two stages: ignition conditions are first determined with a semi-analytic framework coupled to a full reaction network, followed by a sensitivity analysis using the ONEZONE model with individual rate variations. We identify 41 reactions that alter the burst light curve and 187 that significantly impact final abundances. Reactions on bottleneck isotopes in the alpha-p- and rp-process paths strongly affect both observables, while most (p, gamma) reactions on medium-mass (A > 32) and heavy-mass (A > 55) nuclei influence only the final composition. Medium-mass cases dominate in He-rich bursts, where the reaction flow terminates earlier, while heavy-mass cases appear in mixed H and He bursts with extended rp-process paths reaching A ~ 110. We identify a subset of reactions whose rate uncertainties exert influence on the final 12C yield in helium-rich bursts, which could have important consequences for the mechanism of ignition of carbon superbursts. Our results identify key targets for nuclear reaction experiments to reduce nuclear physics uncertainties in XRB models.

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I. Sultana, A. Estrade, B. S. Meyer, H. Schatz. 2025-10-17. Sensitivity of Nuclear Reaction Rates in X-ray Burst Models. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15441

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