From Exploding Stars to the Laboratory: Nucleosynthesis in the rp-Process

The rp-process is thought to result from explosive stellar conditions of high temperature and density typically in an accreting binary star system. These conditions favor the successive proton captures leading to the synthesis of heavier nuclei beyond ⁵⁶Ni and may provide an explanation for the observed high abundances of some p-nuclei. Simulations of this process are an important component of understanding the pathways and the resulting abundances of the process. The most crucial input parameters include nuclear mass differences, β-decay half-lives, deformations, and especially reaction rates. Here is a brief description of a semi-empirical way of predicting the properties of nuclei far from stability that may lie on the rp-process path.