Melissa Rasmussen | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

pynucastro 3: A community library for nuclear astrophysics

We describe the latest release of pynucastro: a community python library for nuclear astrophysics. The goal of the pynucastro project is to build the tools needed to interactively explore nuclear properties, reaction rates, and networks, and to export these networks to a variety of simulation codes. Major changes in pynucastro since the last major release include new rate approximations, a stellar equation of state, support for the StarLib library and rate uncertainties, and new tools for exploring networks.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Sensitivity of Simulations of Double Detonation Type Ia Supernova to Integration Methodology

We study the coupling of hydrodynamics and reactions in simulations of the double detonation model for Type Ia supernovae. When assessing the convergence of simulations, the focus is usually on spatial resolution; however, the method of coupling the physics together as well as the tolerances used in integrating a reaction network also play an important role. In this paper, we explore how the choices made in both coupling and integrating the reaction portion of a simulation (operator / Strang splitting vs.\ the simplified spectral deferred corrections method we introduced previously) influences the accuracy, efficiency, and the nucleosynthesis of simulations of double detonations. We find no need to limit reaction rates or reduce the simulation timestep to the reaction timescale. The entire simulation methodology used here is GPU-accelerated and made freely available as part of the Castro simulation code.

astro-ph.HE↗