INFLUENCE OF SHELL-QUENCHING FAR FROM STABILITY ON THE ASTROPHYSICAL R-PROCESS

Comparison of results from r-process calculations within the waiting-point assumption and the r-process component (N-r,.) of the solar-system composition of heavy elements, permits to test nuclear structure far from stability. Previous investigations, making use of nuclear mass predictions from global macroscopic-microscopic models, showed abundance deficiencies around A similar or equal to 120 and 140, indicating an overly strong N = 82 strength (some models also showed problems around A similar or equal to 180 related to the N = 126 shell). In this paper we calculate masses based on Skyrme interactions locally around N = 82, within the HF+BCS method with the SIII interaction and the HFB theory with SkP interaction. The shell-quenching obtained in the latter approach results in a considerable improvement of the global N-r,. fit, indicating a solution to a puzzle existing in r-process nucleosynthesis.