The rp-process in core-collapse supernovae

Recent hydrodynamic simulations of core-collapse supernovae with accurate neutrino transport suggest that the bulk of the neutrino-heated ejecta is proton rich, in which the production of some interesting proton-rich nuclei is expected. However, there are a number of waiting point nuclei with the beta(+)-lives of a few minutes, which prevent the production of heavy proton-rich nuclei beyond iron in explosive events such as core-collapse supernovae. In this study, it is shown that the rapid proton-capture (rp) process takes place by bypassing these waiting points via neutron-capture reactions even in the proton-rich environment, if there is an intense neutrino flux as expected during the early phase of the neutrino-driven winds of core-collapse supernovae. The nucleosynthesis calculations imply that the neutrino-driven winds can be potentially the origin of light p-nuclei including (92,94)Mo and (96,98)Ru, which cannot be explained by other astrophysical sites.