The r-process, or rapid neutron-capture process, as a research area focuses on understanding the nucleosynthesis of roughly half of the elements heavier than iron through environments with extremely high neutron fluxes. It integrates nuclear physics, astrophysics, and computational modeling to study neutron-rich nuclei far from stability, their capture cross-sections, β-decay rates, fission properties, and the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic conditions in candidate astrophysical sites such as neutron star mergers or certain core-collapse supernovae. Research aims to reproduce observed solar and stellar abundance patterns, constrain the nuclear equation of state, and link electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observations to heavy-element production.
A fleet of NASA missions has likely uncovered a collision between two ultradense stars in a tiny galaxy buried in a huge stream of gas. Astronomers have never seen this type of explosive event in an environment like this ...
Astronomy
Mar 10, 2026
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A recently detected flash of energy appears to have emanated from the wreckage of colliding galaxies, according to an international team of astronomers led by Penn State scientists. The burst, known as GRB 230906A, was likely ...
Astronomy
Mar 10, 2026
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All around us are elements forged in stars, from the nickel and copper in coins to the gold and silver in jewelry. Scientists have a good understanding of how these elements form: In many cases, a nucleus heavier than iron ...
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2025
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You can't have gold until a nucleus decays. The specifics of that process have been hard to pin down, but UT's nuclear physicists have published three discoveries in one paper explaining key details. The results can help ...
General Physics
Oct 22, 2025
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An international team of researchers, led by scientists from GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany, has studied r-process nucleosynthesis in measurements conducted at the Canadian research center TRIUMF in Vancouver. At the center ...
General Physics
Jul 2, 2025
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Understanding the origin of heavy elements on the periodic table is one of the most challenging open problems in all of physics. In the search for conditions suitable for these elements via "nucleosynthesis," a Los Alamos ...
Astronomy
Apr 25, 2025
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Physicists have measured a nuclear reaction that can occur in neutron star collisions, providing direct experimental data for a process that had previously only been theorized. The study, led by the University of Surrey, ...
General Physics
Mar 18, 2025
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An international research collaboration led by the University of Surrey's Nuclear Physics Group has overturned the long-standing belief that the atomic nucleus of lead-208 (²⁰⁸Pb) is perfectly spherical. The discovery ...
General Physics
Feb 22, 2025
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The origin of heavy elements in our universe is theorized to be the result of neutron star collisions, which produce conditions hot and dense enough for free neutrons to merge with atomic nuclei and form new elements in a ...
General Physics
Mar 13, 2024
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