Astrophysical S factor by Monte Carlo Simulations of Photon Transport in Simple Stellar Model

Oral Presentation File: LINK

This is a summary of the Capstone Project carried out in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015 (my exchange semester). The project is supervised by Prof. Pak Wo Leung (HKUST Associate Dean of Science).

Capstone Project

The Capstone Project, otherwise known as the Final Year Project, requires students to conduct an independent research project with a faculty member and produce a bachelor thesis. I chose to work with Professor Pak Wo Leung (Associate Dean of Science) on the topic of “p(p,e^+,ν_e)d Astrophysical S factor by Monte Carlo Simulations of Photon Transport in Simple Stellar Models”.

In my project, a new approach using Monte Carlo Simulation is taken to determine the 𝑝(𝑝,𝑒+𝜈𝑒)𝑑 astrophysical S factor from new developed simple stellar model and Clayton model. The results of new developed stellar model yields 7.5×10^−23 keV barn and Clayton model yields 3.5×10^−15 keV barn, which is closed to the reference value of (4.01±0.04)×10^−22 keV barn. The small difference of the new developed stellar model with reference values shows that Monte Carlo photon simulation approach gives a good rough estimation of 𝑆𝑝𝑝(0) values and hence further confirms that 𝑝.𝑝. chain fusion dominates the nuclear reaction inside the sun.

Supervisor: Prof. Pak Wo Leung (HKUST Associate Dean of Science)

Project Completed: 2015 December

Updated: 2017.11.24. Chenghan Hsieh