Nucleosynthesis in Novae

Abstract

Remarkable progress in our understanding of nova outbursts has been achieved through combined efforts in photometry, spectroscopy and numerical simulations. According to the thermonuclear runaway model, novae are powered by thermonuclear explosions in the H-rich envelopes transferred from a low-mass stellar companion onto a close white dwarf star. Extensive numerical simulations have shown that the accreted envelopes attain peak temperatures ranging between 100 and 400 MK, for about several hundred seconds, hence allowing extensive nuclear processing which eventually shows up in the form of nucleosynthetic fingerprints in the ejecta. Indeed, it has been claimed that novae can play a key role in the enrichment of the interstellar medium through a number of Al. At the turn of the XXI Century, classical novae entered the era of multidimensional models, which provide new insights into the physical mechanisms that drive mixing at the core-envelope interface. In this paper, we will present an overview on classical nova models, from the onset of accretion up to the explosion and ejection stages, with special emphasis on their gross observational properties and their associated nucleosynthesis. The impact of nuclear uncertainties on the final yields will be discussed.