Abstract
The process of carbon burning is vital to understanding late stage stellar
evolution of massive stars and the conditions of certain supernovae. Carbon
burning is a complex problem, involving quantum tunnelling and nuclear
molecular states. Quantum dynamical calculations of carbon burning are
presented, combining the time-dependent wave-packet method and the
density-constrained time-dependent Hartree-Fock (DC-TDHF) approach. By limiting
the contribution of triaxial molecular configurations to fusion, we demonstrate
that the DC-TDHF interaction potential successfully explains the appearance of
some resonant structures in the sub-barrier fusion cross-section. This result
shows the critical role of nucleon-nucleon interactions in the 12C + 12C fusion
resonances observed at astrophysical energies.