Related papers: The r-Process: Recent Progress and Needs for Nucle…
The rapid neutron capture process (r process) is believed to be responsible for about half of the production of the elements heavier than iron and contributes to abundances of some lighter nuclides as well. A universal pattern of r-process…
Nuclear masses are one of the key ingredients of nuclear physics that go into astrophysical simulations of the $r$ process. Nuclear masses effect $r$-process abundances by entering into calculations of Q-values, neutron capture rates,…
An update on astrophysical models for nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture, the r process, is given. A neutrino-induced r process in supernova helium shells may have operated up to metallicities of ~10^-3 times the solar value. Another…
The role of near neutron-drip-line nuclei in the rapid neutron-capture process ($r$-process) is studied with the classical $r$-process model. Simulations under different astrophysical conditions ($T$, $n_n$) show that $r$-process paths…
The r-process constitutes one of the major challenges in nuclear astrophysics. Its astrophysical site has not yet been identified but there is observational evidence suggesting that at least two possible sites should contribute to the solar…
The focus of the present review is the production of the heaviest elements in nature via the r-process. A correct understanding and modeling requires the knowledge of nuclear properties far from stability and a detailed prescription of 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…
The past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in the theoretical and computational tools that produce our understanding of nuclei. A number of microscopic calculations of nuclear electroweak structure and reactions have successfully…
We present a new nucleosynthesis process that may take place on neutron-rich ejecta experiencing an intensive neutrino flux. The nucleosynthesis proceeds similarly to the standard $r$-process, a sequence of neutron-captures and beta-decays,…
Studies attempting to quantify the sensitivity of the $r$-process abundances to nuclear input have to cope with the fact that the theoretical models they rely on, rarely come with confidence intervals. This problem has been dealt with by…
The open question of where, when, and how the heavy elements beyond iron enrich our Universe has triggered a new era in nuclear physics studies.\ Of all the relevant nuclear physics inputs, the mass of very neutron-rich nuclides is a key…
We discuss various neutrino-nucleus interactions in connection with the supernova r-process nucleosynthesis, which possibly occurs in the neutrino-driven wind of a young neutron star. These interactions include absorptions of electron…
This talk reviews three inputs important to neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis in a supernova: 1) "standard" properties of the supernova neutrino flux, 2) effects of phenomena like neutrino oscillations on that flux, and 3) nuclear structure…
Two of the key issues in understanding the neutron-to-proton ratio in a core-collapse supernova are discussed. One of these is the behavior of the neutrino-nucleon cross sections as supernova energies. The other issue is the many-body…
Our understanding of the origin of heavy elements beyond iron relies on the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), which accounts for roughly half of their cosmic abundance. However, the extreme neutron-rich conditions required for the…
We investigate the possibility that neutrino capture on heavy nuclei competes with beta decay in the environment where the $r$-Process elements are synthesized. We find that such neutrino capture is not excluded by existing abundance…
We use results from long-time core-collapse supernovae simulations to investigate the impact of the late time evolution of the ejecta and of the nuclear physics input on the calculated r-process abundances. Based on the latest…
About half of the elements beyond iron are synthesized in stars by rapid-neutron capture process (r-process). The stellar environment provides very high neutron flux in a short time ($\sim$ seconds) which is conducive for the creation of…
We explore neutrino capture during r-process nucleosynthesis in neutrino-driven ejecta from nascent neutron stars. We focus on the interplay between charged-current weak interactions and element synthesis, and we delineate the important…
The r-process of nucleosynthesis requires a large neutron-to-seed nucleus ratio. This does not, however, that there be an excess of neutrons over protons. If the expansion of the material is sufficiently rapid and the entropy per nucleon is…