Pygmy resonances and nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This paper presents a microscopic theoretical approach combining density functional theory and QRPA to study pygmy resonances, enhancing understanding of nuclear response functions relevant to nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It introduces a unified method for describing low-energy nuclear excitations, including pygmy resonances and multiphonon states, with implications for astrophysical nucleosynthesis.

Findings

Unified description of low-energy multiphonon excitations and pygmy resonances.

Improved understanding of nuclear response functions near the neutron threshold.

Relevance to nucleosynthesis processes in astrophysics.

Abstract

A microscopic theoretical approach based on a self-consistent density functional theory for the nuclear ground state and QRPA formalism extended with multi-phonon degrees of freedom for the nuclear excited states is implemented in investigations of new low-energy modes called pygmy resonances. Advantage of the method is the unified description of low-energy multiphonon excitations, pygmy resonances and core polarization effects. This is found of crucial importance for the understanding of the fine structure of nuclear response functions at low energies. Aspects of the precise knowledge of nuclear response functions around the neutron threshold are discussed in a connection to nucleosynthesis.