Related papers: Radioactivities in Low- and Intermediate-Mass Star…
Contrary to previous expectations, recent evolutionary models of zero-metallicity stars show that the development of mixing episodes at the beginning of the AGB phase allows low- and intermediate-mass stars to experience thermal pulses. If…
Radionuclides with half-lives ranging from some years to billions of years presumably synthesized outside of the solar system are now recorded in ``live'' or ``fossil'' form in various types of materials, like meteorites or the galactic…
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars with low initial mass (1 - 3 Msun) are responsible for the production of neutron-capture elements through the main s-process (main slow neutron capture process). The major neutron source is 13C(alpha,…
About half of the elements beyond iron are synthesized in stars by rapid-neutron capture process (r-process). The stellar environment provides very high neutron flux in a short time ($\sim$ seconds) which is conducive for the creation of…
Nuclear reactions transform atomic nuclei inside stars. This is the process of stellar nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars are reviewed. How stars manage to burn their fuel so slowly most…
We propose to advance investigations of electromagnetic radiation originating in atomic nuclei beyond its current infancy to a true astronomy. This nuclear emission is independent from conditions of gas, thus complements more traditional…
We discuss the synthesis of some short-lived isotopes and of 23Na in thermally pulsing AGB stars with initial mass of 2 Msun and two different metallicities (Z=1.5e-2, corresponding to the metal amount in the Sun, and Z=1e-4),…
Abundance observations indicate the presence of often surprisingly large amounts of neutron capture (i.e., s- and r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations provide insight into the nature of the…
Beyond iron, a small fraction of the total abundances in the Solar System is made of proton-rich isotopes, the p nuclei. The clear understanding of their production is a fundamental challenge for nuclear astrophysics. The p nuclei constrain…
The intermediate neutron capture process (i-process) operates at neutron densities between those of the slow and rapid neutron-capture processes. It can be triggered by the ingestion of protons in a convective helium-burning region. One…
Nucleosynthesis in the s process takes place in the He burning layers of low mass AGB stars and during the He and C burning phases of massive stars. The s process contributes about half of the element abundances between Cu and Bi in solar…
We analyse star formation in the nuclei of 9 Seyfert galaxies at spatial resolutions down to 0.085arcsec, corresponding to length scales of less than 10pc in some objects. Our data were taken mostly with the near infrared adaptive optics…
Atomic nuclei are transformed into each other in the cosmos by nuclear reactions inside stars: -- the process of nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars and how they manage to burn their fuel…
Recent observations reveal galaxies in the early Universe (2<z<6.4) with large reservoirs of molecular gas and extreme star formation rates. For a very large range of sources, a tight relationship exists between star formation rate and the…
Planetary nebulae retain the signature of the nucleosynthesis and mixing events that occurred during the previous AGB phase. Observational signatures complement observations of AGB and post-AGB stars and their binary companions. The…
The hot and dense core formed in the collapse of a massive star is a powerful source of hypothetical feebly-interacting particles such as sterile neutrinos, dark photons, axion-like particles (ALPs), and others. Radiative decays such as…
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the main component of the slow neutron capture process (the s-process), which accounts for the solar abundances of half of the nuclei with 90 <~ A <~ 208. We examine the impact of the uncertainties…
Roughly half of the heavy elements (atomic mass greater than that of iron) are believed to be synthesized in the late evolutionary stages of stars with masses between 0.8 and 8 solar masses. Deep inside the star, nuclei (mainly iron)…
The origin of the elements is a fascinating question that scientists have been trying to answer for the last seven decades. The formation of light elements in the primordial universe and heavier elements in astrophysical sources occurs…
We present the first detailed and homogeneous analysis of the s-element content in Galactic carbon stars of N-type. Abundances of Sr,Y, Zr (low-mass s-elements, or ls) and of Ba, La, Nd, Sm and Ce (high-mass s-elements, hs) are derived…