Related papers: Recent Progress in the Understanding of the r-Proc…
I discuss the recent progress in our understanding of nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture, the r-process, based on meteoritic data for the early solar system and observations of stars at low metallicities. At present, all data require…
An overview of the sources for heavy elements in the early Galaxy is given. It is shown that observations of abundances in metal-poor stars can be used along with a basic understanding of stellar models to guide the search for the source of…
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…
About half of the heavy elements beyond iron are known to be produced by the rapid neutron capture process, known as r-process. However, the astrophysical site producing the r-process is still uncertain. Chemical abundances observed in…
We have studied whether the jet in a collapse-driven supernova can be a key process for the rapid-process (r-process) nucleosynthesis. We have examined the features of a steady, subsonic, and rigidly rotating jet in which the centrifugal…
The heavy elements formed by neutron capture processes have an interesting history from which we can extract useful clues to and constraints upon both the characteristics of the processes themselves and the star formation and…
Recent spectroscopic studies have revealed the presence of numerous carbon-enhanced, metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] < -2.0 that exhibit strong enhancements of s-process elements. These stars are believed to be the result of a binary…
The existence of neutron star mergers has been supported since the discovery of the binary pulsar and the observation of its orbital energy loss, consistent with General Relativity. They are considered nucleosynthesis sites of the rapid…
The abundances of r-process elements of very metal-poor stars capture the history of the r-process enrichment in the early stage of star formation in a galaxy. Currently, various types of astrophysical sites including neutron star mergers,…
The r-process of nucleosynthesis requires a large neutron-to-seed nucleus ratio. This does not, however, that there be an excess of neutrons over protons. If the expansion of the material is sufficiently rapid and the entropy per nucleon is…
It is argued that the abundances of r-process related elements in stars with -3<[Fe/H]<-1 can be explained by the contributions of three sources. The sources are: the first generations of very massive (>100 solar masses) stars that are…
We have performed hydrodynamical simulations of the long-time evolution of proto-neutron stars to study the nucleosynthesis using the resulting wind trajectories. Although the conditions found in the present wind models are not favourable…
The r-process nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae (CC-SNe) is studied, with a focus on the explosion scenario induced by rotation and strong magnetic fields. Nucleosynthesis calculations are conducted based on magneto-hydrodynamical…
We solve the general-relativistic steady-state eigenvalue problem of neutrino-driven protoneutron star winds, which immediately follow core-collapse supernova explosions. We provide velocity, density, temperature, and composition profiles…
Although the rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, is fundamentally important for explaining the origin of approximately half of the stable nuclei with A > 60, the astrophysical site of this process has not been identified yet. Here…
We analyze data from several studies of metal-poor stars in the Milky Way, focusing on both strong (Eu) and weak (Sr) $r$-process elements. Because these elements were injected in an explosion, we calculate the mass swept up when the blast…
Current models for the $r$ process are summarized with an emphasis on the key constraints from both nuclear physics measurements and astronomical observations. In particular, we analyze the importance of nuclear physics input such as…
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 rapid neutron capture or 'r process' of nucleosynthesis is believed to be responsible for the production of approximately half the natural abundance of heavy elements found on the periodic table above iron (with proton number $Z=26$)…
Probing the origin of r-process elements in the universe represents a multi-disciplinary challenge. We review the observational evidence that probe the properties of r-process sites, and address them using galactic chemical evolution…