ChETEC-INFRA

Project Description

Horizon 2020 Project – Part of a larger consortium (32 participants), total project cost €4,998,403

Nuclear astrophysics studies the origin of the chemical elements: From the lightest elements created in the Big Bang, to stellar burning, and to neutron star mergers. This requires an understanding of laboratory data, of stellar structure and nucleosynthesis, and of observed elemental and isotopic abundances. ChETEC-INFRA networks astronuclear laboratories, supercomputer facilities, and telescopes. Only together, these infrastructures provide the special set of capabilities needed to understand the origin of the chemical elements. ChETEC-INFRA will overcome existing barriers to progress: Specifically, we will provide unified access to nuclear astrophysics research infrastructures using a unique web portal and develop improved nuclear reaction targets and detectors, open-source nucleosynthesis software tools, and three-dimensional model atmospheres for stellar spectral analysis based on up to date physics. We will pilot complementary techniques to study one and the same science case and link telescopes to nuclear labs and supercomputers. ChETEC-INFRA paves the way to address key questions on solar fusion, neutron capture nucleosynthesis, and explosive processes. In a combined approach designed to facilitate and boost accessibility, synergies and training, the transnational access provided within ChETEC-INFRA will enable projects that will use at least two different types of infrastructures. Within ChETEC-INFRA, data are archived and catalogued for long-term sustainability beyond the end of the project, ranging from evaluated nuclear reaction rates to detailed abundance data from a multitude of stars to tracer nucleosynthesis calculations. ChETEC-INFRA will reach out to secondary school students by adapting and enhancing the Masterclasses tool. Its community builds on the success of the ChETEC COST Action CA16117 (Chemical Elements as Tracers of the Evolution of the Cosmos). We will network with the nuclear astrophysics communities in the United States and Asia.