Neutrinos and Heavy Element Nucleosynthesis

Understand

This chapter discusses three nucleosynthesis processes involved in producing heavy nuclei beyond the iron group that are influenced or shaped by neutrino interactions: the v process, the vp process and the r process.

• These processes are all related to explosive events involving compact objects, such as core-collapse supernovae and binary neutron star mergers, where an abundant amount of neutrinos are emitted.
• The interactions of the neutrinos with nucleons and nuclei through both charged-current and neutral-current reactions play a crucial role in the nucleosynthesis processes.
• During the propagation of neutrinos inside the nucleosynthesis sites, neutrinos may undergo flavor oscillations that can also potentially affect the nucleosynthesis yields.