Electron Capture Processes in Intermediate Mass stars

Abstract

Intermediate mass stars develop a degenerate core constituted of O, Ne and Mg during their evolution. As the density in the core increases electron capture sets in igniting Ne and O burning. Particularly important is electron capture on 20Ne that has been found recently to be dominated by a second forbidden transition from the 0+ ground state of 20Ne to the 2+ ground state of 20F. We have performed shell–model calculations to determine the transition strength and provide an updated value of the electron capture rate and the expected branching ratio to the corresponding β–decay process.