Related papers: Cosmic nucleosynthesis: a multi-messenger challeng…
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…
Supernovae are the most powerful cosmic sources of MeV neutrinos. These elementary particles play a crucial role when the evolution of a massive star is terminated by the collapse of its core to a neutron star or a black hole and the star…
Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) represents one of the earliest phenomena that can lead to observational constraints on the early Universe properties. It is well-known that many important mechanisms and phase transitions occurred before BBN.…
The combination of detections of anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation and observations of the large-scale distribution of galaxies probes the primordial density fluctuations of the universe on spatial scales varying by…
The first massive stars triggered the onset of chemical evolution by releasing the first metals (elements heavier than helium) in the Universe. The nature of these stars and how the early chemical enrichment took place is still largely…
The flux of neutrinos and photons originating from cosmic ray interactions with the interstellar medium in the galaxy is calculated based on current models for high energy particle interactions. The contribution from a possible dark matter…
My thesis work aims to study the inter-relation between various physical and chemical conditions in a wide range of astrophysical environments. Our studied regions range from the super-hot regions (i.e., nebular, photon-dominated, or…
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…
Planetary nebulae (PN) are an excellent laboratory to investigate the nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of intermediate mass stars. In these objects accurate abundances can be obtained for several chemical elements that are…
Neutron stars -- compact objects with masses similar to that of our Sun but radii comparable to the size of a city -- contain the densest form of matter in the universe that can be probed in terrestrial laboratories as well as in earth- and…
The Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) model is a cornerstone for the understanding of the evolution of the early universe, making seminal predictions that are in outstanding agreement with the present observation of light element abundances in…
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…
Nuclear astrophysics is that branch of astrophysics which helps understanding some of the many facets of the Universe through the knowledge of the microcosm of the atomic nucleus. In the last decades much advance has been made in nuclear…
In order to account for the observable Universe, any comprehensive theory or model of cosmology must draw from many disciplines of physics, including gauge theories of strong and weak interactions, the hydrodynamics and microphysics of…
The great diversity of the thousands of planets known to date is proof of the multitude of ways in which formation and evolution processes can shape the life of planetary systems. Multiple formation and evolution paths, however, can result…
High energy neutrinos can be produced by interactions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) in the dense radiation fields of their sources as well as off the cosmic backgrounds when they propagate through the universe. Multi-messenger…
The recent availability of wideband receivers and high sensitivity instruments in the mm and submm wavelengths has opened the possibility of studying in detail the chemistry of the interstellar medium in extragalactic objects. Within the…
Following a brief introduction to early Universe cosmology, the current of status of big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed and the concordance between theory and observation is examined in detail. The abundances of He4 and Li7 determine the…
Nuclear masses play a fundamental role in understanding how the heaviest elements in the Universe are created in the $r$-process. We predict $r$-process nucleosynthesis yields using neutron capture and photodissociation rates that are based…
One signature of an expanding universe is the time-variation of the cosmological abundances of its different components. For example, a radiation-dominated universe inevitably gives way to a matter-dominated universe, and critical moments…