Neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis and deuterium

Abstract

DOMOGATSKY and Nadyozhin¹ have suggested that the neutrino flux from a collapsing stellar core might induce nuclear transformation in the mantle and envelope of the surrounding pre-supernova star. They further suggest that such weak interactions might be responsible for producing the so called ‘p-process’ nuclei which are the rare heavy elements bypassed by the neutron capture chains responsible for synthesising most nuclei heavier than iron. This letter points out a weakness in their model as a mechanism for p-nucleosynthesis and concurrently suggests a rather novel method for the synthesis of deuterium that may have been operative during an early generation of supermassive stars (M∼10⁶–10⁸M⊙).