Nuclear theory for neutron stars and supernovae

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The project described here is concerned with providing a unified treatment of the nuclear physics of supernovae, neutron stars and the r-process of nucleosynthesis. Neutron stars are formed in the aftermath of a supernova explosion, and the r-process may take place either simultaneously with the birth of the neutron star, or much later as our neutron star encounters some other compact star. The r-rocess is responsible for the synthesis of about a half of all nuclei in the universe heavier than iron, and all those heavier than bismuth (including notably uranium). The synthesis by this process even of stable nuclei 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, especially the mass, essential for a full understanding of the r-process. Our approach to this problem is to calculate nuclear masses from effective nuclear forces, i.e., forces with free parameters that have been adjusted to reproduce the masses of known nuclei. At the same time, these effective forces can be used to calculate the properties of the nuclear matter of which neutron stars and supernova cores consist. We are thus opening the way to a much more unified treatment of a vast range of nuclear-astrophysical phenomena than has been possible in the past.