Assess the effect of an extended neutron network

Determine how adding neutron-capture and neutron-production reactions to the nuclear network changes the reported neutron structure in the convective-reactive oxygen–neon shell-merger simulation.

Background

The simulation explicitly tracks neutrons primarily to close the reduced nuclear network and account for neutron creation and decay bookkeeping, while neutron-capture channels are not included. In the reported calculation, neutrons mainly decay and turbulent transport has a comparatively minor role.

Because an extended network could introduce neutron-capture or neutron-production pathways, the authors regard the neutron-layer conclusions as preliminary. Establishing the effect of those omitted reactions would test whether the reported neutron structure is physically robust.