Implication of radioactive nuclear reaction ¹¹C(<i>α</i>, <i>p</i>)¹⁴N in Supernova <i>ν</i>-process nucleosynthesis*

Abstract The origin of boron in the solar system has not yet been clearly understood. We studied the light mass nuclear reactions and neutrino-induced reactions that play important roles in the nucleosynthesis of A =11 nuclei in the core-collapse supernova (CCSN). We found that the production of A =11 nuclei, particularly 11 C, is sensitive to the radioactive nuclear reaction 11 C N among many others. We calculated the upper and lower limits of the 11 C N rate by taking account of the low energy resonances above the threshold, which have not been included in the previous SN nucleosynthesis calculations. These resonance contributions significantly change the 11 C abundance, which decays to 11 B with a half-life of 20.34 m, and affects the resultant isotopic abundance ratio of 11 B/ 10 B at from which the presolar X grains could form. The 11 B/ 10 B isotopic ratio measured in X grains can help to understand the origin of solar system boron and constrain still unknown neutrino mass hierarchy if the observational and theoretical uncertainties associated with these abundances are reduced. We emphasize that the further precise experiment of measuring the 11 C N reaction cross sections at the astrophysically interesting energies of Gamow window 0.23−1.24 MeV, which corresponds to the effective temperature GK, could clarify CCSN contribution to the solar 11 B/ 10 B ratio.