Nuclear theory for collapsed stars and r-process nucleosynthesis

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The project described here is concerned with providing a unified theoretical treatement  of the nuclear physics of the r-process. This is a process occurring in violent stellar events such as gravitational-collapse supernovas or neutron-star mergers, and is responsible for the nucleosynthesis of half of all the nuclei in the universe belonging to elements heavier than iron, and all those heavier than bismuth (including notably uranium). The r-process synthesis even of nuclei that are stable passes through intermediate stages involving nuclei that are so unstable that they cannot be observed in the laboratory, so that it is only through theory that one can form any idea of the properties of these nuclei, essential for a full understanding of the process. The nuclear properties with which we are notably concerned are binding energy and fission. In the case of the synthesis of r-process nuclei through neutron-star mergers a knowledge of the equation of state of the neutron star's crust is essential, and we have been able to extend to this problem the theory that we have developed for nuclear binding energies.