Why is H burning not a B+ decay

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    Cno cycle Decay
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SUMMARY

Hydrogen burning is not classified as B+ decay within the standard CNO cycle due to the differing rates of reactions involved. The CNO-I cycle's limiting reaction is proton capture on nitrogen-14, which occurs at a significantly slower rate than positron decay at low temperatures. At high temperatures, such as in novae, the CNO cycle accelerates, allowing proton capture to occur more rapidly, thus making positron decay a limiting factor. The terminology surrounding beta-plus decay can be misleading, as it is not typically used to describe the processes in the CNO cycle.

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The forgetful one
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TL;DR
Hydrogen Burning in CNO cycle
Hello physics gurus out there.
Can someone please point me in the correct direction.
I am looking for reasons why Hydrogen burning is NOT considered to be B+ decay in the standard CNO cycle?

Thanks
The forgetful one
 
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The forgetful one said:
Hydrogen burning is NOT considered to be B+ decay
Says who ?
 
There are two beta+ decays as part of the CNO cycles.
 
Apologies folks, I am just trying to learn this stuff.
The question I have is. If you consider the normal CNO cycle, why is H burning using this route not considered to be B+ decay limited.
 
Limited is rather a key word in your question :smile: .
I take it you googled the CNO link ? It says
wiki said:
The limiting (slowest) reaction in the CNO-I cycle is the proton capture on ##\mathstrut ^{14}_{\ 7}\!N ##
 
This is a totally new area for me, I am doing it to try and stop my grey matter from going all mushy.
I think I should just let it go and do flower arranging instead. :-)
 
Just so you know: it's totally new for me too :oldeyes: ( but my background may be different)

However, I do like new areas of skills and knowledge. Not so sure about flower arranging, though ...
 
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It is not limited at low temperature, like star cores.
The reason is that positron decay is one particle process that happens at a speed independent on temperature or density, and in case of the CNO cycle nuclei (N-13 and O-15) in a few minutes. Whereas at those low temperatures the proton captures happen once in millions of years.
At high temperatures, like in exploding novae where accumulated protium explodes, CNO cycle is sped up until the proton capture can happen in minutes, and then positron decay does become a limiting step. This allows the branches of hot CNO cycle, like N-13 captures a second proton before decay and goes through O-14.
 
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Terminology issue. B+ is an unusual term for beta decay.
 

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