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Sensitivity study of explosive nucleosynthesis in Type Ia supernovae: I. Modification of individual thermonuclear reaction rates

We explore the sensitivity of the nucleosynthesis due to type Ia supernovae with respect to uncertainties in nuclear reaction rates. We have adopted a standard one-dimensional delayed detonation model of the explosion of a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf, and have post-processed the thermodynamic trajectories of every mass-shell with a nucleosynthetic code, with increases (decreases) by a factor of ten on the rates of 1196 nuclear reactions. We have computed as well hydrodynamic models for different rates of the fusion reactions of 12C and of 16O. For selected reactions, we have recomputed the nucleosynthesis with alternative prescriptions for their rates taken from the JINA REACLIB database, and have analyzed the temperature ranges where modifications of their rates have the strongest effect on nucleosynthesis. The nucleosynthesis resulting from the Type Ia supernova models is quite robust with respect to variations of nuclear reaction rates, with the exception of the reaction of fusion of 12C nuclei. The energy of the explosion changes by less than \sim4%. The changes in the nucleosynthesis due to the modification of the rates of fusion reactions are as well quite modest, for instance no species with a mass fraction larger than 0.02 experiences a variation of its yield larger than a factor of two. We provide the sensitivity of the yields of the most abundant species with respect to the rates of the most intense reactions with protons, neutrons, and alphas. In general, the yields of Fe-group nuclei are more robust than the yields of intermediate-mass elements. Among the charged particle reactions, the most influential on supernova nucleosynthesis are 30Si + p \rightleftarrows 31P + γ, 20Ne + α \rightleftarrows 24Mg + γ, and 24Mg + α \rightleftarrows 27Al + p. The temperatures at which a modification of their rate has a larger impact are in the range 2 < T < 4 GK. (abridged)