Evolution, Explosion, and Nucleosynthesis of Core-Collapse Supernovae

We present a new set of presupernova evolutions and explosive yields of massive stars of initial solar composition (Y=0.285, Z=0.02) in the mass range 13-35 M_solar. All the models have been computed with the latest version (4.97) of the FRANEC code that now includes a nuclear network extending from neutrons to ⁹⁸Mo. The explosive nucleosynthesis has been computed twice: a first one with a hydro code and a second one following the simpler radiation-dominated shock approximation (RDA). The main results concerning the models and the associated explosions are as follows: (1) the inclusion of the latest available input physics does not alter significantly the main properties of the presupernova models with respect to our previous ones; (2) the differences between the old and new explosive yields computed with the RDA remain confined within a factor of 2 for most of the nuclei; (3) the differences between the elemental RDA yields and those computed with a hydro code do not exceed 0.1 dex, with the exceptions of the elements produced mainly by the complete explosive Si burning: in this case the variations are anyway less than a factor of 3; (4) the relation between the final kinetic energy and the ⁵⁶Ni ejected weakens as the mass of the progenitor star increases; (5) the yields corresponding to the ejection of a given amount of ⁵⁶Ni are in fair agreement with those obtained by a more energetic explosion in which the mass cut is chosen in order to give the same ⁵⁶Ni. The production factors (integrated over a Salpeter mass function between 13 and 35 M_solar) of the majority of the isotopes show an almost scaled solar distribution relative to oxygen. The few exceptions are discussed in detail. We also find that the present integrated yields allow a fraction of the order of 10%-20% of Type Ia supernovae if their latest available yields are adopted.