EMMI workshop: Neutron Matter in Astrophysics: From Neutron Stars to the r-Process

The rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, is known to be of fundamental importance for explaining the origin of approximately half of the A>60 stable nuclei observed in nature. In recent years nuclear astrophysicists have developed more and more sophisticated r-process models, eagerly trying to add new astrophysical or nuclear physics ingredients to explain the solar system...

We consider neutrinos and nucleosynthesis in several different environments: supernovae, gamma ray bursts and compact object mergers. We examine the role of neutrinos in the r-process, the p-process and in the formation of Nickel-26. We consider the impact of neutrino general relativistic effects and collective neutrino flavor transformation.

The shear viscosity plays an important role in damping gravitational wave driven instabilities in old and accreting neutron stars. We discuss the shear viscosity in the presence of an antikaon condensate in neutron stars, using Boltzmann kinetic equation in the relaxation time approximation. The calculation of shear viscosity involves the equation of state (EoS) as an input, that we construct...