Nuclear physics and supernovae

✍ Scribed by Sam M. Austin

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 459 KB
• Volume: 649
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0375-9474
• DOI: 10.1016/s0375-9474(99)00073-1

✦ Synopsis

At the end of the life of a massive star, its iron core collapses under the unopposed attraction of gravity and initiates the supernova process. A violent explosion ensues and blows off the surface layers of the star, leaving behind a neutron star or a black hole. Both the nature of the collapse and nucleosynthesis by the r-process that synthesizes half of the heavier elements, depend upon the strengths of Gamow Teller transitions in the nuclei involved: those with masses near iron and larger. We will discuss progress made obtaining the needed strengths, with special attention to data on radioactive nuclei and how one may obtain it using radioactive beams.