Nuclear data - an essential tool in nuclear astrophysics

Abstract

Nuclear processes play an essential role for the evolution of many astrophysical objects and they are key to the origin of the elements in the Universe. Our understanding of the Universe has benefitted from the tremendous progress in nuclear physics which became possible due to novel experimental facilities and improved instrumentation as well as due to advances in theoretical modelling. The talk exemplifies this progress for three selected topics: solar and stellar hydrostatic burning, neutron-star mergers as a site of heavy-element production by the r-process and the influence of electron capture on nuclei for the core-collapse in massive stars leading to supernova explosions.