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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.

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The cross sections of nuclear reactions between the radioisotope 7 Be and deuterium, a possible mechanism of reducing the production of mass-7 nuclides in Big-Bang nucleosynthesis, were measured at center-of-mass energies between 0.2 MeV and 1.5 MeV. The measured cross sections are dominated by the (d, α) reaction channel, towards which prior experiments were mostly insensitive. A new resonance at 0.36(5) MeV with a strength of ωγ = 1.7(5) keV was observed inside the relevant Gamow window. Calculations of nucleosynthesis outcomes based on the experimental cross section show that the resonance reduces the predicted abundance of primordial 7 Li, but not sufficiently to solve the primordial lithium problem.