Related papers: The formation of the heaviest elements
It is generally agreed on that the tremendous densities reached in the centers of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which several intriguing particles processes may compete with each other. These range from the generation…
Compact binary mergers involving neutron stars can eject a fraction of their mass to space. Being extremely neutron rich, this material undergoes rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis, and the resulting radioactivity powers fast,…
The quest for the origin of the chemical elements, which we find in our body, in our planet (Earth), in our star (Sun), or in our galaxy (Milky Way) could only be resolved with a thorough understanding of the nuclear physics properties of…
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 origin of the heavy elements in the Universe is not fully determined. Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) and {binary neutron star} (BNS) mergers may both produce heavy elements via rapid neutron-capture (r-process). We use the recent…
Although the multimessenger detection of the neutron star merger event GW170817 confirmed that mergers are promising sites producing the majority of nature's heavy elements via the rapid neutron-capture process ($r$-process), a number of…
Core-collapse supernovae are the terminal explosions of massive stars. After successive phases of nuclear fusion proceeding up to silicon burning, these stars form an iron core that is supported by electron degeneracy pressure. The core…
The paper considers the evolution of the supernova envelopes produced by Population III stars with masses of $M_*\sim 25-200 M_\odot$ located in non-rotating protogalaxies with masses of $M\sim 10^7 M_\odot$ at redshifts $z=12$, with…
During the last several decades, there have been a number of advances in understanding the rapid neutron-capture process (i.e., the r-process). These advances include large quantities of high-resolution spectroscopic abundance data of…
In this talk I discuss properties of hot stellar matter at sub-nuclear densities which is formed in supernova explosions. I emphasize that thermodynamic conditions there are rather similar to those created in the laboratory by…
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,…
We propose a unified model for the nucleosynthesis of heavy (A > 57) elements in stars. The neutron flux can be set to describe neutron capture in arbitrary neutron flux. Our approach solves the coupled differential equations, that describe…
Deciphering the conditions under which neutron captures occur in the Universe to synthesize heavy elements is an endeavour pursued since the 1950s, but that has proven elusive up to now due to the experimental difficulty of generating the…
Kilonovae are a novel class of astrophysical transients, and the only observationally-confirmed site of rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (the r-process) in the Universe. To date, only a handful of kilonovae have been detected, with…
The formation of the chemical composition of neutron star envelopes, at high densities is considered. As hot matter is compressed in the process of collapse, which leads to the explosion of a core collapse supernova, the stage of nuclear…
Neutron stars are some of the densest manifestations of massive objects in the universe. They are ideal astrophysical laboratories for testing theories of dense matter physics and provide connections among nuclear physics, particle physics…
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…
Massive-star-associated models for production of elements heavier than Fe are reviewed. The important roles of neutrinos in many of these models are discussed along with uncertainties in the relevant neutrino physics. Data on elemental…
Some Jupiter-mass exoplanets contain $\sim$$100\, M_\oplus$ of metals, well above the $\sim$$10\, M_\oplus$ typically needed in a solid core to trigger giant planet formation by runaway gas accretion. We demonstrate that such `heavy-metal…
The actinides, such as the uranium (U) element, are typically synthesized through the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process), which can occur in core-collapse supernovae or double neutron star mergers. There exist nine r-process giant…