Topics
Beyond iron, a small fraction of the total abundances in the Solar System is made of proton-rich isotopes, the p-nuclei. The clear understanding of their production is a fundamental challenge for nuclear astrophysics but still remains to be clarified.
Arnould and Goriely in Physics Report 2003 claimed that “The first remarkable feature of this process is the scarcity of the efforts devoted to its understanding. In fact, after about 50 years of nuclear astrophysics research, the number of articles devoted to it still remains inferior to the 35 nuclides traditionally classified as p-nuclides.” In view of this situation, they like to refer to the ‘nuclear astrophysics p-nuts’ when talking about the p-nuclides.
The p-nuclei can provide important constrain the nucleosynthesis in core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae. The γ-process is the most established scenario for the production of the p-nuclei, which are produced via different photodisintegration paths starting on heavier nuclei. A large effort from nuclear physics is needed to access the relevant nuclear reaction rates far from the valley of stability. In addition for light-p nuclei the astrophysical process is still unknown: nu-p, alpha-rich freeze-out, neutrino winds are all possible astrophysical sites.
The workshop will cover the above mentioned topics and will explores the state of the art of experimental nuclear physics to provide nuclear data for stellar nucleosynthesis.
We plan to have invited talks that will give a broader overview of supernova models related to the production of the p nuclei, and of experimental and theoretical nuclear physics work on this topic. In addition, we plan to have invited talks related to interstellar grains isotopic measurements, the observational constraint of p-nuclei together with Solar System abundances.
Goals
The goal of the workshop is to
- Investigate the role of different kind of supernovae (core collapse and thermonuclear) in the synthesis of p-nuclei, providing constraints on the still uncertain supernova models;
- Create a priority list for critical reaction rates during explosive conditions to be measured, identifying the relevant nuclear reactions for the γ process;
- Comparison of prediction models to isotopic anomalies in pristine meteorites.
The final goal will be to build up a step further in solving the mystery of the astrophysical source/sources of p-nuclei.
The meeting will be a full week event divided into the following Session each including an invited/review presentation and contributed talks
- Nuclear physics/experiments related to p-rpocess nucleosynthesis
- Stellar models and nucleosynthesis
- Meteorites and radioactives
- Presolar grains
- Chemical evolution
We will have the Wednesday afternoon free when we will organize a tour to the Fontanafredda cantines (10 min far by car from the conference location, we will organize the trasport) and a following buffet.
The meeting will conclude on Friday, September 27th, at 1pm.
The workshop will be hosted at Boscareto Resort, Serralunga d’Alba (Cuneo), Italy. We will organize two transports from Turin Airport and train station on Sunday September 22nd and on Monday September 23rd and the same for the way back on Friday 27th.