Conveners
Nuclear Physics / Nuclear Astrophysics / Gravitational Waves
- Miriam Diamond (University of Toronto)
The heaviest elements observed in nature are understood to be produced by the rapid neutron capture process (r process), but which astrophysical site(s) host this process remains an open question. The extreme astrophysical conditions required to synthesize neutron-rich nuclei points to explosive events, and in fact core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) were a long favored site of heavy element...
The observation of elemental abundances in the most metal-poor stars have revealed the operation of a neutron-capture regime intermediate between the familiar slow (s) and rapid (r) process regimes. This i process can be activated when the H- and He-burning shells interact convectively, which is possible in low-metallicity conditions found in the early universe. The i process is the result of...
Exotic features like halo and the disappearance of the magic numbers were revealed by investigating the nuclei towards the neutron-rich region resulting from the large neutron/proton asymmetry. The halo occurrence in the neutron-rich nuclei originates due to a large spatial extension of the density of the outermost neutrons. The proton radius is an important property to understand the...
In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which (infinitesimally) small
fluctuations acting on a system crossing a critical point decide the system’s fate, by
determining which branch of bifurcation is taken. To an outside observer unaware of the
fluctuations, the choice will appear arbitrary. This process is called symmetry breaking,
because such transitions usually bring the...
I will discuss the conformal and non-conformal two Higgs doublet model with a focus on their phase transition and gravitational wave signatures. The construction of the finite temperature effective potential of both models will be discussed in detail. Compared to the non-conformal case, the conformal model yields a very interesting phase diagram in the 2-dimensional parameter space...
