Related papers: The formation of the heaviest elements
Neutrino processes in dense matter play a key role in the dynamics, deleptonization and early cooling of hot protoneutron stars formed in the gravitational collapse of massive stars. Here we calculate neutrino mean free paths from…
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 common envelop jet supernovae (CEJSN) r-process scenario has been proposed as an r-process nucleosynthesis site in the past decade. Jets launched by a neutron star that spirals-in inside the core of a red supergiant star in a common…
We examine the characteristics of nucleosynthesis in 'hypernovae', i.e., supernovae with very large explosion energies ($ \gsim 10^{52} $ ergs). We carry out detailed nucleosynthesis calculations for these energetic explosions and compare…
Nucleosynthesis, on the surface of accreting neutron stars, produces a range of chemical elements. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of crystallization to see how this complex composition forms new neutron star crust. We find…
Motivated by the possibility that the laws of physics could be different in other regions of space-time, we consider nuclear processes in universes where the weak interaction is either stronger or weaker than observed. We focus on the…
Neutron rich matter is at the heart of many fundamental questions in Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. What are the high density phases of QCD? Where did the chemical elements come from? What is the structure of many compact and energetic…
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,…
We calculate the mean evolution of the iron-peak abundance ratios [(Cr,Mn,Co,Zn)/Fe] in the Galaxy, using modern supernova and hypernova chemical yields and a Galactic Chemical Evolution code that assumes homogeneous chemical evolution. We…
The rapid-neutron capture process ($r$ process) is identified as the producer of about 50\% of elements heavier than iron. This process requires an astrophysical environment with an extremely high neutron flux over a short amount of time…
The formation of life is an automatic stage in the consolidation of rocky or "terrestrial" planets. The organic (=carbonaceous) matter, light elements, gases, and water must "float" toward the surface and the heavier metals must sink toward…
Most of our current understanding of the planet formation mechanism is based on the planet metallicity correlation derived mostly from solar-type stars harbouring gas-giant planets. To achieve a far more reaching grasp on the substellar…
We explore heavy element nucleosynthesis in the explosion of massive stars which are triggered by a quark-hadron phase transition during the early post bounce phase of core-collapse supernovae. The present study is based on general…
The merger of two neutron stars usually produces a remnant with a mass significantly above the single (nonrotating) neutron star maximum mass. In some cases, the remnant will be stabilized against collapse by rapid, differential rotation.…
Nuclear reactions generate energy in nuclear reactors, in stars, and are responsible for the existence of all elements heavier than hydrogen in the universe. Nuclear reactions denote reactions between nuclei, and between nuclei and other…
The formation of a star is a dynamic process fed by the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud core. Theoretical models and observations suggest that the majority of this infalling material settles into a protoplanetary disk before…
Massive stars, by which we mean those stars exploding as core collapse supernovae, play a pivotal role in the evolution of the Universe. Therefore, the understanding of their evolution and explosion is fundamental in many branches of…
Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…
A neutron star is pictured as a gigantic nucleus overwhelmed by the number of neutrons, unlike real atomic nuclei, that have a similar number of neutrons and protons. Is this true? What if we could find, or create nuclei without protons?…
A number of properties of dense matter can be understood semiquantitatively in terms of simple physical arguments. We begin with the outer parts of neutron stars, and consider the density at which pressure ionization occurs, the density at…