Astrophysical Nuclear Reaction Network School

The focus of the school will be the understanding and application of nuclear reaction networks to astrophysical models for systems such as novae, x-ray bursts (rp-process) and neutron star mergers (r-process). The reaction network employed will be the public NucNet code published by Prof. Bradley Meyer, of Clemson University.

Our target group will be graduate students and postdocs with interest in astrophysical reaction networks. Participants may be astrophysics students interested in including nucleosynthesis into their models or in interpreting observations, or nuclear physics students interested in exploring nuclear physics sensitivities in astrophysical models. No prior knowledge other than some basic quantum mechanics and some basic understanding of programming is required.

Our plan is to emphasize group work and practical training with the code libnucnet. The practical work will be complemented by a set of lectures on numerical techniques, reaction rate formalism and the underlying nuclear physics, astrophysical applications, and observations. At the end of the school, students will have the code installed on their computers, will know how to run it, will understand how it works, and will be able to interpret results.