Related papers: Nuclear Reactions in Evolving Stars
Big bang nucleosynthesis provides the earliest probe of standard model physics, at a time when the universe was less than a thousand seconds old. It determines the abundances of the lightest nuclides, which give rise to the subsequent…
We find constraints on minimum and maximum mass of ordinary neutron stars imposed by their early evolution (protoneutron star stage). We calculate models of protoneutron stars using a realistic standard equation of state of hot, dense…
We investigate the influences of the nuclear composition on the weak interaction rates of heavy nuclei during the core collapse of massive stars. The nuclear abundances in nuclear statistical equilibrium (NSE) are calculated by some…
The reactions of relevance for stellar evolution are difficult to measure directly in the laboratory at the small astrophysical energies. In recent years indirect reaction methods have been developed and applied to extract low-energy…
Electromagnetic reactions on light nuclei are fundamental to advance our understanding of nuclear structure and dynamics. The perturbative nature of the electromagnetic probes allows to clearly connect measured cross sections with the…
Microscopic calculations show a strong parity dependence of the nuclear level density at low excitation energy of a nucleus. Previously, this dependence has either been neglected or only implemented in the initial and final channels of…
Astrophysical reaction rates are sensitive to the parity distribution at low excitation energies. We combine a formula for the energy-dependent parity distribution with a microscopic-macroscopic nuclear level density. This approach…
We present a straightforward integration method to compute the abundance and temperature evolution in explosive scenarios. In this approach the thermal equation is implicitely coupled with chemical equations in order to avoid instabilities…
We investigate four-body nuclear reactions in stellar environments contributing to creation of light nuclei, exemplified by $^9$Be and $^{12}$C. The originally assumed process is radiative capture, where nuclear clusters combine into the…
Electron captures on nuclei play an essential role for the dynamics of several astrophysical objects. The capture rate can be derived in perturbation theory where allowed nuclear transitions (Gamow-Teller transitions) dominate, except at…
Nuclear reactions in stars occur between nuclei in the high-energy tail of the energy distribution and are sensitive to possible deviations from the standard equilibrium thermal-energy distribution. We are able to derive strong constraints…
In this contribution, we briefly present the equation-of-state modelling for application to neutron stars and discuss current constraints coming from nuclear physics theory and experiments. To assess the impact of model uncertainties, we…
The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the…
The nucleosynthesis and other observable consequences of a nova outburst depend sensitively on the details of the thermonuclear runaway which initiates the outburst. One important source of uncertainty in our current models is the nuclear…
Nuclear weak rates in stellar environments are obtained by shell-model calculations including Gamow-Teller (GT) and spin-dipole transitions, and applied to nuclear weak processes in stars. The important roles of accurate weak rates for the…
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…
We discuss pycnonuclear burning of highly exotic atomic nuclei in deep crusts of neutron stars, at densities up to 1e13 g/cc. As an application, we consider pycnonuclear burning of matter accreted on a neutron star in a soft X-ray transient…
We study the efficiency and sensitivity of r-process nucleosynthesis to 18 light-element nuclear reaction rates. We adopt empirical power-law relations to parameterize the reaction sensitivities. We utilize two different hydrodynamic models…
The fundamental processes by which nuclear energy is generated in the Sun have been known for many years. However, continuous progress in areas such as neutrino experiments, stellar spectroscopy and helioseismic data and techniques requires…
The reaction mechanisms best suited for the production of neutron-rich nuclei, fragmentation and fission, are discussed. Measurements of the production cross sections of reaction residues together with model calculations allow to conclude…