The existence of the majority of elements heavier than iron in the Universe can be mainly attributed to the occurrence of either the slow neutron capture process (s-process) or the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). While it has been well known that an additional process; the so-called p-process is required to explain the production of a few stable neutron-deficient isotopes that are...
Reliable neutron capture rates away from stability are critical in order to understand neutron-induced nucleosynthesis. These reaction rates in most cases have to be calculated with the Hauser-Feshbach theory. The accuracy of Hauser Feshbach neutron capture rates depends on the description of statistical properties such as the density of levels and the gamma ray strengths. Since all models of...
R-process plays a central role on the nucleosynthesis for more than half of nuclei heavier than iron. Among many nuclear properties such as fission, half-lives and neutron-emission probabilities which can be used to validate and constraint various theoretical r-process models, nuclear masses are very important because the neutron separation energies are the main variable to define the...
Classical novae and type I X-ray bursts are energetic and common thermonuclear astrophysical explosions. However, our ability to understand these events is limited by the lack of comprehensive nuclear data on proton-rich nuclei. Specifically, constraining the $^{30}$P$(p,\gamma)^{31}$S and $^{15}$O$(\alpha,\gamma)^{19}$Ne reaction rates has been found to be crucial to the understanding of...
This talk will address a long-standing challenge, namely, the emergence from first principles of collectivity and clustering in light to medium-mass nuclei, with implications for reproducing enhanced E2 transitions without effective charges; for the formation of alpha clustering; as well as for the description of proton- and alpha-capture reactions of interest to x-ray burst nucleosynthesis...
