Nuclear astrophysics is a field at the intersection of nuclear physics and astrophysics, which seeks to understand the nuclear engines of astronomical objects and the origin of the chemical elements. This white paper summarizes progress and status of the field, the new open questions that have emerged, and the tremendous scientific opportunities that have opened up with major advances in capabilities across an ever growing number of disciplines and subfields that need to be integrated. We take a holistic view of the field discussing the unique challenges and opportunities in nuclear astrophysics in regards to science, diversity, education, and the interdisciplinarity and breadth of the field. Clearly nuclear astrophysics is a dynamic field with a bright future that is entering a new era of discovery opportunities.

Thought to produce around half of all isotopes heavier than iron, the r-process is a key mechanism for nucleosynthesis. However, a complete description of the r-process is still lacking and many unknowns remain. Experimental determination of β-decay half-lives and β-delayed neutron emission probabilities along the r-process path would help to facilitate a greater understanding of this process. The Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) represents the latest generation of silicon implantation detectors for β-decay studies with fast radioactive ion beams. Preliminary results from commissioning experiments demonstrate successful operation of AIDA and analysis of the data obtained during the first official AIDA experiments is now under-way.

The β-delayed neutron-emission probabilities of 28 exotic neutron-rich isotopes of Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd were measured for the first time at RIKEN Nishina Center using the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) and the BRIKEN neutron detector array. The existing β-decay half-life (T 1/2) database was significantly increased toward more neutron-rich isotopes, and uncertainties for previously measured values were decreased. The new data not only constrain the theoretical predictions of half-lives and β-delayed neutron-emission probabilities, but also allow for probing the mechanisms of formation of the high-mass wing of the rare-earth peak located at A ≈ 160 in the r-process abundance distribution through astrophysical reaction network calculations. An uncertainty quantification of the calculated abundance patterns with the new data shows a reduction of the uncertainty in the rare-earth peak region. The newly introduced variance-based sensitivity analysis method offers valuable insight into the influence of important nuclear physics inputs on the calculated abundance patterns. The analysis has identified the half-lives of 168Sm and of several gadolinium isotopes as some of the key variables among the current experimental data to understand the remaining abundance uncertainty at A = 167–172.

β-delayed one-neutron and two-neutron branching ratios (P 1n and P 2n) have been measured in the decay of A = 84 to 87 Ga isotopes at the Radioactive-Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at the RIKEN Nishina Center using a high-efficiency array of 3 He neutron counters (BRIKEN). Two-neutron emission was observed in the decay of 84,85,87 Ga for the first time and the branching ratios were measured to be P 2n = 1.6(2)%, 1.3(2)%, and 10.2(28) stat (5) sys %, respectively. One-neutron branching ratio of 87 Ga (P 1n = 81(9) stat (8) sys %) and half-life of 29(4) ms were measured for the first time. The branching ratios of 86 Ga were also measured to be P 1n = 74(2) stat (8) sys % and 16.2(9) stat (6) sys % with better precision than a previous study. The observation that P 1n > P 2n for both 86,87 Ga was unexpected and is interpreted as a signature of dominating one-neutron emission from the two-neutron unbound excited states in 86,87 Ge. In order to interpret the experimental results, shell-model and Hauser-Feshbach statistical model calculations of delayed particle and γ-ray emission probabilities were performed. This model framework reproduces the experimental results. The shell model alone predicts P 2n significantly larger than P 1n for the 87 Ga decay, and it is necessary to invoke a statistical description to *