Neutrinos and the synthesis of heavy elements: the role of gravity

¹ Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
² ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
³ Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
⁵ Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

^a e-mail: lcaballe@umail.iu.edu

Published online: 28 May 2015

Abstract

The synthesis of heavy elements in the Universe presents several challenges. From one side the astrophysical site is still undetermined and on other hand the input from nuclear physics requires the knowledge of properties of exotic nuclei, some of them perhaps accessible in ion beam facilities. Black hole accretion disks have been proposed as possible r-process sites. Analogously to Supernovae these objects emit huge amounts of neutrinos. We discuss the neutrino emission from black hole accretion disks. In particular we show the influence that the black hole strong gravitational field has on changing the electron fraction relevant to the synthesis of elements.