Related papers: Following nuclei through nucleosynthesis: a novel …
Atomic nuclei are quantum many-body systems of protons and neutrons held together by strong nuclear forces. Under the proper conditions, nuclei can break into two (sometimes three) fragments which will subsequently decay by emitting…
In rapid neutron capture, or r-process, nucleosynthesis, heavy elements are built up via a sequence of neutron captures and beta decays that involves thousands of nuclei far from stability. Though we understand the basics of how the…
Reactions between atomic nuclei are measured in great detail in terrestrial laboratory experiments; transferring and extrapolating this knowledge to how the same reactions act within cosmic environments presents major challenges.…
Nuclear fission represents the ultimate test for microscopic theories of nuclear structure and reactions. Fission is a large-amplitude, time-dependent phenomenon taking place in a self-bound, strongly-interacting many-body system. It…
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…
Nuclear astrophysics is a multi-disciplinary field with a huge demand for nuclear data. Among its various fields, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis are clearly the most closely related to nuclear physics. The need for nuclear data for…
The identification of the astrophysical site and the specific conditions in which r-process nucleosynthesis takes place remain unsolved mysteries of astrophysics. The present paper emphasizes some important future challenges faced by…
Nuclear astrophysics aims at unraveling the cosmic origins of chemical elements and the physical processes powering stars. It constitutes a truly multidisciplinary field, that integrates tools, advancements, and accomplishments from…
The astrophysical rapid neutron capture process or `$r$ process' of nucleosynthesis is believed to be responsible for the production of approximately half the heavy element abundances found in nature. This multifaceted problem remains one…
Radioactivity was discovered as a by-product of searching for elements with suitable chemical properties. Understanding its characteristics led to the development of nuclear physics, understanding that unstable configurations of nucleons…
Stellar nucleosynthesis is an important nuclear physics phenomenon that is responsible for presently observed chemical elements and isotope abundances. It is also one of the corner stone hypotheses that provides basis for our understanding…
Nuclear physics has a long and productive history of application to astrophysics which continues today. Advances in the accuracy and breadth of astrophysical data and theory drive the need for better experimental and theoretical…
Explosive nucleosynthesis is a combination of the nuclear physics of thermonuclear reactions, and the hydrodynamics of the plasma in which the reactions occur. It depends upon the initial conditions---the stellar evolution up to the…
About half of the heavy elements in the Solar System were created by rapid neutron capture, or r-process, nucleosynthesis. In the r-process, heavy elements are built up via a sequence of neutron captures and beta decays in which an intense…
The relationship among nuclear structure, the weak processes in nuclei, and astrophysics becomes quite apparent in supernova explosion and nucleosynthesis studies. In this brief article, I report on progress made in the last few years on…
There is a high demand for nuclear data in multidisciplinary subject like nuclear astrophysics. The two areas of nuclear physics which are most clearly related to one another are stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. The necessity for…
The r-process, or the rapid neutron-capture process, of stellar nucleosynthesis is called for to explain the production of the stable (and some long-lived radioactive) neutron-rich nuclides heavier than iron that are observed in stars of…
The fission process is a fascinating phenomenon in which the atomic nucleus, a compact self-bound mesoscopic system, undergoes a spontaneous or induced quantum transition into two or more fragments. A predictive, accurate and precise…
A brief survey of nuclide abundances in the solar-system and in cosmic rays and of the believed mechanisms of their synthesis is given. The role of spallation processes in nucleosynthesis is discussed. A short review of recent measurements,…
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), an epoch of primordial nuclear transformations in the expanding Universe, has left an observable imprint in the abundances of light elements. Precision observations of such abundances, combined with…