Nuclear, Particle, and Weak Interaction Physics of the Big Bang and Stellar Collapse

神秘中微子的一些性质(例如，静止质量)仍然难以捉摸。这些性质的发现很可能代表着超越粒子物理标准模型的新物理学，并可能给我们提供对宇宙演化的洞察。在某种程度上，人们对这些粒子知之甚少，因为它们之间的相互作用非常弱，以至于传统的实验室实验很少有定论。然而，令人意外的是，中微子和中微子与物质的相互作用可能在早期宇宙中轻核的合成和超新星爆炸中重核的合成中发挥主导作用。只要我们能够理解这些天体物理环境的核物理，我们就有可能把它们(也就是观测到的核合成产物)用作中微子物理的“实验室”。相反，对中微子性质的新的实验见解可能会让我们更好地理解我们的宇宙中原子核是如何形成的。毕竟，这仍然是核物理的一个核心问题。这里提出的工作旨在利用中微子物理和轻核和重核的核合成之间的共生关系。这项工作的目标将是在理解这些问题方面取得进展。

Some properties (e.g., rest masses) of the mysterious neutrinos remain elusive. Discovery of these properties may well represent new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and could give us insights into the evolution of the universe. In part, little is known about these particles because they interact so weakly that conventional laboratory experiments are rarely definitive. Serendipidously, however, neutrinos and neutrino interactions with matter may play a dominant role in the synthesis of the light nuclei in the early universe and in the synthesis of the heavy nuclei in supernova explosions. To the extent that we can understand the nuclear physics of these astrophysical environments, we may be able to employ them (that is, their observed nucleosynthesis products) as neutrino physics "laboratories." Conversely, new experimental insights into the properties of the neutrinos may allow us a better understanding of how nuclei were made in our universe. This remains, afterall, a central problem of nuclear physics. The work proposed here aims to exploit the symbiosis between neutrino physics and the nucleosynthesis of the light and heavy nuclei. The goal of this work will be to make progress in understanding each of these issues.