Related papers: Nuclear physics in the cosmos
The origins of the elements and isotopes of cosmic material is a critical aspect of understanding the evolution of the universe. Nucleosynthesis typically requires physical conditions of high temperatures and densities. These are found in…
The primary aim of experimental nuclear astrophysics is to determine the rates of nuclear reactions taking place in stars in various astrophysical conditions. These reaction rates are important ingredient for understanding the elemental…
Recent international efforts have brought us closer to unveiling the century old mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic ray, gamma ray, and neutrino observatories are reaching the necessary sensitivity to study the highest energy…
Neutron stars are valuable laboratories for the study of dense matter. Recent observations have uncovered both massive and low-mass neutron stars and have also set constraints on neutron star radii. The largest mass measurements are…
High energy scattering experiments involving nuclei are typically analyzed in terms of light front variables. The desire to provide realistic, relativistic wave functions expressed in terms of these variables led me to try to use light…
Astrophysical neutrinos can be produced in proton interactions of charged cosmic rays with ambient photon or baryonic fields. Cosmic rays are observed in balloon, satellite and air shower experiments every day, from below 1e9 eV up to…
Cosmic rays of kinetic energies below ~1 GeV per nucleon are thought to play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar medium. They are also thought to be responsible for nucleosynthesis of the light elements Li, Be, and…
Nucleosynthesis beyond Fe poses additional challenges not encountered when studying astrophysical processes involving light nuclei. Generally higher temperatures and nuclear level densities lead to stronger contributions of transitions on…
In the past four decades a new type of astronomy has emerged, where instead of looking up into the sky "telescopes" are buried miles underground or deep under water or ice and search not for photons (that is, light), but rather for…
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…
Solar flare observations are used to demonstrate the new technique of abundance determination based on gamma ray line emission produced by accelerated particle bombardment. Some of the implications of similar gamma ray line emission…
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the extreme universe, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be further addressed. History has shown that the symbiosis between direct observations and laboratory…
After reviewing some of the basic concepts, nomenclatures and parametrizations of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, we introduce a few central problems in Nuclear Astrophysics, including the hot-CNO cycle, helium burning in massive…
The quest for the origin of matter in the Universe had been the subject of philosophical and theological debates over the history of mankind, but quantitative answers could be found only by the scientific achievements of the last century. A…
The intersection of the cosmic and neutrino frontiers is a rich field where much discovery space still remains. Neutrinos play a pivotal role in the hot big bang cosmology, influencing the dynamics of the universe over numerous decades in…
Neutrinos are produced by a variety of sources that comprise our Sun, explosive environments such as core-collapse supernovae, the Earth and the Early Universe. The precise origin of the recently discovered ultra-high energy neutrinos is to…
We introduce neutrino astronomy starting from the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back a century, we…
Ever since the discovery of neutron stars it has been realized that they serve as probes of a physical regime that cannot be accessed in laboratories: strongly degenerate matter at several times nuclear saturation density. Existing nuclear…
There has never been a more exciting time in the overlapping areas of nuclear physics, particle physics and relativistic astrophysics than today. Orbiting observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE),…
The measurement of gamma rays from cosmic sources at MeV energies is one of the key tools for nuclear astrophysics, in its study of nuclear reactions and their impacts on objects and phenomena throughout the universe. Gamma rays trace…