On Nuclear Reactions Occuring in Very Hot STARS.I. the Synthesis of Elements from Carbon to Nickel.

The present paper aims to show that the abundances of the chemical elements over the portion of the periodic table from carbon to nickel are onsistent with the view that the elements originate at the high temperatures that probably occur in the interiors of certain types of star. The argument takes its most definite form in the discussion of the synthesis of elements below sodium, where it seems that the abundances are in fairly close accord with the known properties of the various nuclei. For sodium and heavier elements sufficiently precise nuclear data are not available, and hence the argument becomes more qualitative than quantitative. Nevertheless, the general nature of the agreement between calculation and observation for these latter nuclei makes the discussion of them worth presenting. The early parts of the paper are concerned with the relation to cosmogony of the theory of the origin of the elements.