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It is in the nature of astrophysics that many of the processes and objects one tries to understand are physically inaccessible. Thus, it is important that those aspects that can be studied in the laboratory be rather well understood. One…
Nuclear astrophysics strives for a comprehensive picture of the nuclear reactions responsible for synthesizing the chemical elements and for powering the stellar evolution engine. Deep underground in the Gran Sasso laboratory the cross…
Extremely low background experiments to measure key nuclear reaction cross sections of astrophysical interest are conducted at the world's deepest underground laboratory, the Jingping Underground laboratory for Nuclear Astrophysics (JUNA).…
Nuclear reactions are responsible for the chemical evolution of stars, galaxies and the Universe. Unfortunately, at temperatures of interest for nuclear astrophysics, the cross-sections of the thermonuclear reactions are in the…
The essential ingredients of nuclear astrophysics are the thermonuclear reactions which shape the life and death of stars and which are responsible for the synthesis of the chemical elements in the Universe. Deep underground in the Gran…
Neutron stars are astrophysical laboratories of many extremes of physics. Their rich phenomenology provides insights into the state and composition of matter at densities which cannot be reached in terrestrial experiments. Since the core of…
The chemical evolution of the Universe and several phases of the stellar life are regulated by minute nuclear reactions. The key point for each of these reactions is the value of cross sections at the energies at which they take place in…
The origin of the elements is a fascinating question that scientists have been trying to answer for the last seven decades. The formation of light elements in the primordial universe and heavier elements in astrophysical sources occurs…
Neutron stars have long been regarded as extra-terrestrial laboratories from which we can learn about extreme energy density matter at low temperatures. In this article, I highlight some of the recent advances made in astrophysical…
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…
Atomic nuclei are transformed into each other in the cosmos by nuclear reactions inside stars: -- the process of nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars and how they manage to burn their fuel…
The goal of nuclear astrophysics is to measure cross sections of nuclear physics reactions of interest in astrophysics. At stars temperatures, these cross sections are very low due to the suppression of the Coulomb barrier. Cosmic ray…
The chemical elements are created in nuclear fusion processes in the hot and dense cores of stars. The energy generated through nucleosynthesis allows stars to shine for billions of years. When these stars explode as massive supernovae, the…
Half a century has passed since the foundation of nuclear astrophysics. Since then, this discipline has reached its maturity. Today, nuclear astrophysics constitutes a multidisciplinary crucible of knowledge that combines the achievements…
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.…
Now 50 years since the existence of the neutron star crust was proposed, we review the current understanding of the nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars. Nuclei produced during nuclear burning replace the nascent…
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…
During the last century, with the development of modern physics in such diverse fields as thermodynamics, statistical physics, and nuclear and particle physics, the basic principles of the evolution of stars have been successfully well…
We observe photons and neutrinos from stars. Based on these observations, complemented by measurements of cosmic rays energies and composition, we have been able to constrain several models for the Big Bang and for stellar evolution. But…
Formed in the aftermath of gravitational core-collapse supernova explosions, neutron stars are unique cosmic laboratories for probing the properties of matter under extreme conditions that cannot be reproduced in terrestrial laboratories.…