Production of the light r-process nuclei in neutrino-driven winds Original Research Article

We examine the nucleosynthesis of light r-process nuclei in the neutrino-driven winds from the nascent neutron star resulting from a core-collapse supernova. Neutrino-driven winds are considered to provide most plausible environments for r-process, although requisite conditions for forming the third peak (A=195), which include large neutron excess, high entropy, or short dynamical timescale, cannot be easily obtained. We find that a reasonable fit to the solar r-process abundance distribution in the mass range 90 < A < 130 is obtained with the time evolution of the electron fraction considered in our nucleosynthesis calculations. However, neutrino-driven winds seem not suitable to reproduce the solar pattern in the mass range 60 < A < 90.