Conveners
M1-5 Nuclear Astrophysics (DNP) | Astrophysique nucléaire (DPN)
- Chris Ruiz (TRIUMF)
Gaining insight into the astrophysical processes that govern nucleosynthesis in stellar scenarios requires a detailed understanding of the involved nuclear reactions. Radiative capture cross sections at typical temperatures of environments like novae, X-ray burst or supernovae are in many cases vanishingly small, thus making the reaction rates extremely challenging to access...
In asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, 22Ne plays an important role in several nucleosynthesis processes, with its production competing with the synthesis of 19F through the so called ‘poisoning reaction’, and the following transfer into 25Mg acting as one of the main neutron sources for the s-process, affecting the reaction rates of numerous isotopes.
In this contribution, we present a...
A striking example of quantum behaviour in the nucleus are the nuclear shells, analogous to the electron shell system in atomic physics, at well-known magic numbers of protons/neutrons. Nuclear shells can evolve with changing proton and neutron count as shown in the emergence of the N = 32 shell closure. This changing nuclear structure can directly affect nuclear properties like masses...
Half-lives of $N=82$ nuclei below doubly-magic $^{132}$Sn are key input parameters for calculations of any astrophysical $r$-process scenario and play an important role in the formation and shape of the second $r$-process abundance peak. In the past, shell-model calculations of neutron-rich nuclei near the $N=82$ neutron shell closure that are not yet experimentally accessible have been...
