triple-alpha process

Carbon is produced by the triple-alpha process in all stars.

Because the triple-alpha process is unlikely, it requires a long period of time to produce much carbon.

Its abundance is due to the Triple-alpha process by which it is created in stars.

The resonant state allows carbon to be produced via the triple-alpha process.

The triple-alpha process is strongly dependent on the temperature and density of the stellar material.

A similar resonance increases the probability of the triple-alpha process, which is responsible for the original production of carbon.

This eventually leads to ignition of helium fusion (which includes the triple-alpha process) in the core.

The triple-alpha process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions by which three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are transformed into carbon.

In stars, the bottleneck is passed by triple collisions of helium-4 nuclei, producing carbon (the triple-alpha process).

In 1951 he published a paper concerning the triple-alpha process, describing the burning of helium-4 into carbon-12 in the cores of red giant stars.

While the triple-alpha process only requires helium, once some carbon is present, other reactions that consume helium are possible:

Instead, the interiors of stars in the horizontal branch transform three helium nuclei into carbon by means of this triple-alpha process.

During the triple-alpha process, some elements heavier than carbon are also produced: mostly oxygen, but also some magnesium, neon, and even heavier elements.

If the star has more than about 0.5 solar masses , the core eventually reaches the temperature necessary for the fusion of helium into carbon through the triple-alpha process.

At a certain point the helium at the core of the star will reach a pressure and temperature where it can begin to undergo nuclear fusion through the triple-alpha process.

Like other white dwarfs, V886 Centauri is thought to be composed primarily of carbon and oxygen, which are created by thermonuclear fusion of helium nuclei in the triple-alpha process.

Once the core is degenerate, it will continue to heat until it reaches a temperature of roughly 10 K, hot enough to begin fusing helium to carbon via the triple-alpha process.

In stars above about 0.4 M the core temperature eventually reaches 10 K and helium will begin to fuse to carbon and oxygen in the core by the triple-alpha process.

The alpha process, also known as the alpha ladder is one of two classes of nuclear fusion reactions by which stars convert helium into heavier elements, the other being the triple-alpha process.

In 1951 Salpeter suggested that stars could burn helium-4 into carbon-12 with the Triple-alpha process not directly, but through an intermediate metastable state of beryllium-8, which helped to explain the carbon production in stars.

In evolved stars with cores at 100 million K and masses between 0.5 and 10 solar masses, helium can be transformed into carbon in the triple-alpha process that uses the intermediate element beryllium:

Oberhummer, Csótó und Schlattl were able to derive quantifiable results concerning the fine-tuning of the Universe by investigating the creation of carbon and oxygen in the triple-alpha process in red giants.

The British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle first showed that the energy levels of Be and C allow carbon production by the so-called triple-alpha process in helium-fueled stars where more nucleosynthesis time is available.

After the hydrogen-fusing lifetime of a main-sequence star of low or medium mass ends, it will expand to a red giant which fuses helium to carbon and oxygen in its core by the triple-alpha process.

In trying to work out the routes of stellar nucleosynthesis, he observed that one particular nuclear reaction, the triple-alpha process, which generates carbon, would require the carbon nucleus to have a very specific resonance energy for it to work.