Nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in massive stars Original Research Article

We present nucleosynthesis results form calculations that follow the evolution of massive stars from their birth on the main sequence through their explosion as supernovae. Our simulations include all relevant isotopes and reaction rates up to bismuth. These are the first calculations to follow self-consistently in a complete massive star model the heavy s-process, p-process (γ-process), and v-process. We discuss where in the star the heavy p-process and v-process are made. We show the first calculations of the charged and neutral current v-process including a two particle cascade for the production of 138La and 180Ta in complete stellar models.