Conveners
Reaction & Structure Related to Nuclear Astrophysics
- Steven Pain (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
The astrophysical source of the p nuclei – a series of rare, proton-rich stable isotopes with abnormally high natural abundances – remains an open question. The p nuclei cannot be produced through the known neutron capture processes, but instead are thought to be synthesized in astrophysical environments via a series of photodisintegration reactions on s-process seeds. A major source of...
The 57Ni(p,γ)58Cu reaction rate significantly impacts nucleosynthesis in a variety of astrophysical sites. In core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) this reaction impacts the production of 44Ti, a radioiso- tope whose observed gamma-ray emissions offer an important probe into CCSNe, providing a test of nucleosynthesis models. Furthermore, the 57Ni(p,γ)58Cu reaction rate has been shown to...
Classical novae and Type I X-ray bursts (XRBs) are among the most frequent thermonuclear stellar explosions in the Galaxy. The 30P(p,γ)31S reaction acts as a nucleosynthesis bottleneck in the flow of material to heavier masses, affecting several nova observables. The dominant source of uncertainty in the current recommended reaction rate is the theoretical γ decay width of the 3/2+, 260-keV...
