Supernova explosions of massive stars are one of the primary sites for the production of the elements in the universe .
Up to now , stars with zero-age main-sequence masses in the range of 35–50 M _ { \odot } had mostly been representing the failed supernova explosion branch .
In contrast , it has been demonstrated recently that the appearance of exotic phases of hot and dense matter , associated with a sufficiently strong phase transition from nuclear matter to the quark-gluon plasma at high baryon density , can trigger supernova explosions of such massive supergiant .
Here , we present the first results obtained from an extensive nucleosynthesis analysis for material being ejected from the surface of the newly born proto-neutron star of such supernova explosions .
These ejecta contain an early neutron-rich component and a late-time high-entropy neutrino-driven wind .
The nucleosynthesis robustly overcomes the production of nuclei associated with the second r -process peak , at nuclear mass number A \simeq 130 , and proceeds beyond the formation of the third peak ( A \simeq 195 ) to the actinides .
These yields may account for metal-poor star observations concerning r -process elements such as strontium and europium in the Galaxy at low metalicity , while the actinide yields suggests that this source may be a candidate contributing to the abundances of radioactive ^ { 244 } Pu measured in deep-sea sediments on Earth . Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts : Supernovae ( 1668 ) ; Nucleosynthesis ( 1131 ) ; Nuclear astrophysics ( 1129 ) ;