Related papers: Neutron capture on 130Sn during r-process freeze-o…
I compare seven actively studied r-process nucleosynthesis scenarios against observed properties of r-process elements in the early Universe, and conclude that the most likely scenario to contribute to the site of elements below the third…
The location of electron capture heat sources in the crust of accreting neutron stars depends on the masses of extremely neutron-rich nuclei. We present first results from a new implementation of the time-of-flight technique to measure…
The importance of microphysical inputs from laboratory nuclear experiments and theoretical nuclear structure calculations in the understanding of the core collapse dynamics, and the subsequent supernova explosion, is largely recognized in…
Neutron-capture elements, those with Z > 35, are the least well-understood in terms of nucleosynthesis and formation environments. The rapid neutron-capture, or r-process, elements are formed in the environments and/or remnants of massive…
The $^{63}$Ni($n, \gamma$) cross section has been measured for the first time at the neutron time-of-flight facility n\_TOF at CERN from thermal neutron energies up to 200 keV. In total, capture kernels of 12 (new) resonances were…
We present new observational benchmarks of rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) nucleosynthesis for elements at and between the first (A ~ 80) and second (A ~ 130) peaks. Our analysis is based on archival ultraviolet and optical…
After a successful core-collapse supernova, a neutrino-driven wind develops where it is possible to synthesize lighter heavy elements ($30<Z<45$). In the early galaxy, the origin of these elements is associated to the r-process and to an…
Nuclear masses play a fundamental role in understanding how the heaviest elements in the Universe are created in the $r$-process. We predict $r$-process nucleosynthesis yields using neutron capture and photodissociation rates that are based…
Our understanding of the origin of heavy elements beyond iron relies on the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), which accounts for roughly half of their cosmic abundance. However, the extreme neutron-rich conditions required for the…
Neutron capture data on intermediate mass nuclei are of key importance to nucleosynthesis in the weak component of the slow neutron capture processes, which occurs in massive stars. The ($n,\gamma$) cross section on $^{70}$Ge, which is…
During the late stages of gravitational core-collapse of massive stars, extreme isospin asymmetries are reached within the core. Due to the lack of microscopic calculations of electron capture (EC) rates for all relevant nuclei, in general…
It has been shown that proton ingestion episodes can happen in the formation of hot-subdwarf stars, and that neutron-capture processes are possible in those cases. Moreover, some helium-rich hot subdwarfs display extraordinarily high…
I shall review some of the recent results concerning the astrophysics of a core collapse supernova (SN) and neutrino oscillations. Neutrinos play an important role in the SN explosion, and they also carry most of the energy of the collapse.…
At the low temperature and high density conditions of a neutron star crust neutrons are degenerate. In this work, we study the effect of this degeneracy on the capture rates of neutrons on neutron rich nuclei in accreted crusts. We use a…
$\beta$-decay is known to play an essential role in the rapid neutron capture process ($r$-process) during $(n, \gamma) \leftrightarrow (\gamma, n)$ equilibrium and freeze-out when the neutron-rich nuclei decay back to stability. Recent…
Long-lived radioactive nuclei play an important role as nucleo-cosmochronometers and as cosmic tracers of nucleosynthetic source activity. In particular nuclei in the actinide region like thorium, uranium, and plutonium can testify to the…
The production of about half of the heavy elements found in nature is assigned to a specific astrophysical nucleosynthesis process: the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Although this idea has been postulated more than six decades…
Abundance observations indicate the presence of rapid-neutron capture (i.e., r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations demonstrate that the earliest generations of stars in the Galaxy,…
Theoretical studies of the nucleosynthesis origin of the heavy elements in our Solar System (S.S.) by the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) still face the entwined uncertainties in the possible astrophysical scenarios and the…
In the abundance spectrum of r-process nuclei the most prominent features are the peaks that form when the r-process flow passes through the closed neutron shells. However, there are also other features in the abundance spectrum that can…