The goal of this 3-day workshop is to launch the data interpretation phase of the RPA with selected experts in observational, theoretical and experimental r-process work.

This will be the tenth in a series of former JINA and now JINA-CEE meetings that brings together JINA-CEE participants, collaborators, and other interested researchers in nuclear physics, astronomy, and astrophysics to discuss progress and future directions related to the understanding of the origin of the elements and neutron stars.

Organizing Committee:

Sebastian Aguilar, University of Notre Dame

This workshop intends to teach the application of stellar modelling using Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) to those in the nuclear-astrophysics community. This is especially geared toward those in the nuclear community who measure, calculate, and theorize reaction rates, in order to apply them to existing stellar models and measure the effects on various features, such as abundances and other astronomical observables.

Radioactive nuclei play a significant role in many current astrophysical quests. From the origin of the elements through the driving of the emissions from supernovae (56Ni) and kilonovae (r-process radioactivity), they are crucial for direct studies of galactic enrichment (7Be, 26Al, 44Ti, 60Fe, 99Tc, 244Pu, ...) and for new insights on stellar explosions (56/57Ni, 44Ti).

Statistical estimates of nuclear reaction rates are essential ingredients for astrophysical model calculations, e.g. r-process nucleosynthesis in neutron star mergers, and nuclear applications, e.g. next generation nuclear reactor performance. Rate calculations require experimental or theoretical constraints for nuclear properties such as level densities (temperature), gamma-strength functions, particle optical potentials, and level spin distributions.