Nuclear Masses in Astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advancements in nuclear mass spectrometry, emphasizing its importance for understanding element formation in the universe and its role in astrophysical nucleosynthesis models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental achievements in measuring atomic masses of exotic nuclei relevant to astrophysics.

Findings

Improved mass measurements of exotic nuclei.

Enhanced data for nucleosynthesis modeling.

Progress in mass spectrometry techniques.

Abstract

Among all nuclear ground-state properties, atomic masses are highly specific for each particular combination of N and Z and the data obtained apply to a variety of physics topics. One of the most crucial questions to be addressed in mass spectrometry of unstable radionuclides is the one of understanding the processes of element formation in the Universe. To this end, accurate atomic mass values of a large number of exotic nuclei participating in nucleosynthesis are among the key input data in large-scale reaction network calculations. In this paper, a review on the latest achievements in mass spectrometry for nuclear astrophysics is given.