Classical nova explosions - hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis

Classical nova outbursts are thermonuclear stellar explosions driven by charged-particle reactions. Extensive numerical simulations of nova explosions have shown that the accreted envelopes attain peak temperatures ranging between 0.1 and 0.4 GK, for about several hundred seconds, and therefore, their ejecta is expected to show signatures of nuclear processing. Indeed, it has been claimed that novae play some role in the enrichment of the interstellar medium in a number of intermediate-mass elements. This includes O-17, N-15, and C-13, significantly overproduced with respect to solar abundances, and a lower contribution to a number of species with A < 40, such as Li-7, F-19, or Al-26. In this paper, we review the modeling of classical nova outbursts, from spherically-symmetric (1D) hydrodynamic models to recent multidimensional simulations. The predicted nucleosynthesis accompanying nova outbursts is briefly compared with the abundances determined in meteoritic presolar grains of putative nova origin. The impact of current nuclear uncertainties on the final yields is also outlined.