Nuclear physics : A key ingredient in astrophysical modeling

Abstract

Nuclear physics is a basic ingredient in a large number of energetic astrophysical environments which are characterized by sufficient temperatures and densities to permit scattering events among particles, leading to nuclear reactions and possibly the production of unstable reaction poducts. Strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions (fusion, exchange reactions, photodisintegrations, beta-decays, electron [and positron] captures on nucleons and nuclei, neutrino scattering and captures [i.e. neutral and charged current reactions]) can produce nuclei far form stability and require extended knowledge of nuclear structure near and far from stability, including decay and fission properties. Last, but not least, the nucleon-nucleon interaction determines the nuclear equation of state at and beyond nuclear densities and is ultimately connected to the question under which conditions a phase transitions from hadrons to the quark-gluon plasma occurs. In this review we will survey how these aspects of nuclear physics enter the modeling of astrophysical objects.