Nuclear structure theory for the astrophysical rp-process and r-process Original Research Article

The astrophysical processes of rapid-proton capture and rapid-neutron capture require the knowledge of many nuclear properties which are not known from experiment. I will describe two examples of how theoretical models are used to provide this input. The first of these uses the Hartree-Fock method for displacement energies to obtain the masses of proton-rich nuclei needed for the rp-process. The second uses a model for configuration mixing near 132Sn to provide Q values and beta-decay lifetimes for the r-process.