Chemistry for the r process

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'How Do Nuclear Reactions Power Astrophysical Processes and Create the Chemical Elements?' is one of the big science questions. The most mysterious of the several process involved, it the rapid neutron capture process (r process). It is believed to synthetise half of the elements heavier than iron. Its understanding requires knowledge of the properties of nuclei involved and the conditions in the astrophysical site. Presently the favoured/possible astrophysical sites are neutron-star mergers and magneto-rotational supernovae explosions. The nuclei produced in such explosive scenarios are extremely neutron rich, very far from the line of stability. Consequently, the large majority of them were never synthetized on Earth, and the abundance calculations have to use nuclear properties obtained from theories. The abundance peak around mass number A~190 is the consequence of the N=126 magic neutron number. The study of the neutron-rich N=126 nuclei is a key aim of the leading nuclear physics facilities such as FAIR/GSI and CERN-ISOLDE etc. Here, a novel detection system will be designed, based on simulations and available experimental information for the study of extremely neutron-rich nuclei produced in multi-nucleon transfer reactions. Identification and separation based on chemical methods, used for super-heavy elements will be merged with conventional nuclear physics techniques for the first time. This is a proof-of-concept study requiring multidisciplinary (physics and chemistry) approach. Its ultimate aim is to develop a project aimed at building a system to study the properties of neutron-rich nuclei on the r-process waiting path, therefore addressing the question of how and where heavy elements were/are formed in the universe.