Hands-On Training for Young Nuclear Astrophysicists at Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics X School

On the 3rd of September 2022, the ChETEC-INFRA Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics X school was concluded. The school took place at CERN (Geneva), and hosted 32 students or young post-docs (~50% females) from 13 Countries. The school was one of a kind, combining lectures and hands-on activities. Students had the chance to learn first-hand how to develop a Nuclear Astrophysics Masterclass, how to predict galactic chemical evolution with the OMEGA code, and how to plan an astronomical observation. Although observations at the Nordic Optical Telescope were not possible due to bad weather, the students still spent the night analyzing stellar spectra to derive chemical abundances.

Lecturers and participants of the NPA-X school. (Credit: NPA-X School)

In the framework of the school we also organized a public lecture entitled: “Our Milky Way seen by the GAIA Mission” at the Globe of Science and Innovation. The lecture was given by Laurent Eyer, Maître d’enseignement et de recherche at the Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, and Leader of the Gaia variability processing and analysis. The event, supported by CERN & Society Foundation, was big success, with more than 210 participants! A recording of the lecture is available at:

Laurent Eyer: “Our Milky Way Seen by the GAIA Mission”

Solar Fusion III Workshop

The Solar Fusion III workshop (SF-III) took place from July 26-29, 2022, at Berkeley (USA) under the sponsorship of ChETEC-INFRA, the NSF network N3AS and the Institute for Nuclear Theory (USA). Initially scheduled for 2020, ten years after the previous SF-II workshop, SF-III brought together experimentalists and theoreticians working on hydrogen burning nuclear reactions with the final goal of setting a new set of consensus reaction rates appropriate for solar and stellar evolution models.

In total, 55 scientists from 12 countries took part in the workshop. The activities at the workshop were split across 9 Working Groups (WGs), focusing on specific nuclear reactions (or groups of nuclear reactions) with each participant being able to join up to 3 different WGs according to interests and expertise. WGs presented the state-of-the-art of the field in plenary talks, and then followed their activities by individual meetings. Final summaries were presented on the last day. A full schedule and presentation slides is available at the workshop web site.

Solar Fusion III Participants in Berkeley (Credit: Solar Fusion III)

During the workshop, the WGs have reviewed developments that happened during the last decade and have established the roadmap for the post-workshop activities. The final goal of the workshop is to provide the community with a new generation of nuclear cross sections that take into consideration the advancements in the field since SF-II in 2010. Results will be published in a review article.

In the context of ChETEC-INFRA, the activities at the workshop are of central relevance, in particular to activities in the Astronuclear Library (NA3/WP8) network which aims at providing standardized nuclear reaction rates for hydrogen burning.

New Video on HPC Stellar Nucleosynthesis Tools

The next video of the series on Stellar Nucleosynthesis Tools for HPC Clusters is now available. The tutorial on SE Outputs from MESA for Postprocessing is available on the ChETEC-INFRA channel on YouTube, or as part of this play list (external link to youtube.com).

The video series is part of the resources provided to the community through the actions of ChETEC-INFRA. An overview of the various resources is provided on this page.

ChETEC-INFRA Meets for Second General Assembly in Padova

One year after the first general assembly of ChETEC-INFRA in 2021 was held online, the second assembly now took place in hybrid mode.

Held in the center of Padua (Italy), the program of the meeting included presentations on developments in nuclear astrophysics, as well as talks on highlights of the individual ChETEC-INFRA Work Packages and user reports on selected Transnational Access proposals. Neighboring networks from North America, Asia, and within Europe were also part of the conference program.

With 87 registered participants, and more than 50 participants on site, the assembly brought members from within the consortium, TNA users and representatives of neighboring networks together, and provided the opportunity to discuss the activities of ChETEC-INFRA and their future developments.

ChETEC-INFRA TNA Event on May 23: Transnational Access and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the DREAMS Facility

On Monday, May 23, 2022 at 15:30 – 16:30 (Brussels time) the next edition of the „ChETEC-INFRA TNA event“ will take place on Zoom: Meeting Link.

After an introduction outlining TNA in ChETEC-INFRA, the DREAMS Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility in Dresden, Germany, will be presented with slides and a virtual tour of the laboratory. The remaining session will be available for Q&A. The event will be recorded, slides and the recordings will be made available.

Questions and inquiries on Transnational Access can also be addressed during the drop-in Office Hours via Zoom.

TNA Proposals: Call 5 open until May 17, Office Hours every Monday

The ongoing call 5 for Transnational Access Proposals to be collected for evaluation closes on May 17. TNA through ChETEC-INFRA offers access to 13 facilities (telescopes, nuclear laboratories and high-performance computing), without access cost for the proposer and with the possibility to support travel expenses.

Prospective proposers are encouraged to contact the facilities to discuss the technical feasibility of their proposal. Each of the 13 facility pages offers a check list with key information for each facility, as well as contact information for the facility managers and the transnational access coordinators.

Proposers are asked to use the provided templates for their proposals. The access times at the facilities corresponding to the current call are listed here.

For questions and information on transnational access, there is the possibility to join an open Zoom meeting every Monday between 14:30 and 15:00.

Proposals are collected for evaluation every 3 months. After May 17, the next collection period will close on August 17, 2022.

SNAQs Celebrates First Year of Schools on Nuclear Astrophysics Questions

In February 2021 the first edition of the School on Nuclear Astrophysics Questions (SNAQs) launched. With monthly schools – except for a summer break and months with in-person schools taking place, a total of nine schools were held up to January 2021 when SNAQs celebrated the conclusion of its first year.

Geographic distribution of participants in the first year of SNAQs schools (darker shades of blue indicate larger numbers of participants).

Each of the nine schools revolved around one topical question of nuclear astrophysics. The topic was introduced in lectures, and underlined through presentations by young researchers. In total more than 1000 participants followed the schools, with attendants from within Europe and beyond.

Following this success, SNAQs will continue in its second year. After an edition on the role of outreach programs in nuclear astrophysics in April, the next edition of SNAQs on May 11 will focus on accurate abundances of chemical elements in stars. Abstracts for contributions from young researchers can be submitted until May 4.