Relevance of thermally populated first excited state of 44Ti to the abundance problem of cassiopiea A: A model study

We examine the possible role of electron-capture on the thermally populated first 2⁺ excited state of ⁴⁴Ti in hot astrophysical environments pertaining to post explosive nucleosynthesis supernova debris. We find in a simple schematic model that the astrophysical weak interaction rate for electron-capture decay of ⁴⁴Ti can depend considerably on temperature and hence on time. We propose a time varying decay rate for the evolving supernova debris and demonstrate its consequence for the ⁴⁴Ti mass yield of the supernova Cas A, observed through the measured 1.157 MeV γ-ray flux from the electron-capture decay of ⁴⁴Ti.