PROPERTIES OF HEAVY AND SUPERHEAVY NUCLEI IN SUPERNOVA ENVIRONMENTS

The properties of nuclei embedded in an electron gas are studied within the relativistic mean-field approach. These studies are relevant for nuclear properties in astrophysical environments such as neutron-star crusts and supernova explosions. The electron gas is treated as a constant background in the Wigner–Seitz cell approximation. We investigate the stability of nuclei with respect to α and β decay. We find that the presence of the electrons leads to stabilizing effects for α decay at high electron densities. Furthermore, the screening effect shifts the proton drip-line to more proton-rich nuclei, and the stability line with respect to β decay is shifted to more neutron-rich nuclei. Implications for the creation and survival of very heavy nuclear systems are discussed.