Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Chair/Advisor

Prof. Bradley S. Meyer

Committee Member

Prof. Mounib F. El-Eid

Committee Member

Prof. Dieter H. Hartmann

Committee Member

Prof. Stephen R. Kaeppler

Abstract

s-Process nucleosynthesis is a process in which stars produce elements of mass range A = 57 to 210. Since the days of B2FH, immense work has gone into quantifying and computing s-process yields and pathways. We expand upon said work along two fronts. The first front sets up the framework for proper treatment of nuclear isomers in network calculations. We apply the framework to study 85Kr, which is a pivotal isotope in the s-process chain that affects the abundance yields of Strontium and Rubidium isotopes. In particular, we are interested in the ratio of 88Sr/86Sr and 87Rb which are important for pre-solar grain analysis and cosmochronometry respectively. The second front is characterizes the density of neutron exposures, following up the work done by the late Prof. Clayton. Additionally, we introduce two computational packages, a restructure of one that handles sparse matrix solving, and an in-house open-source highly modular Python package that can handle quantum levels data which contains features with future expansions planned.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9970-6454

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