PHYS/ASTR Colloquium: "The Ghosts of Stars: The Heaviest Elements Found in Nature and Where They Are Born" - Erin Huntzinger (PhD Candidate, UC Davis)

San Francisco State University

Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series

Monday, April 6, 2026

SEIC 210, 3:30 PM

"The Ghosts of Stars: The Heaviest Elements Found in Nature and Where They Are Born"

Erin Huntzinger, PhD Candidate, UC Davis

Over its 14-billion-year history, the composition of the universe evolved in chemical complexity, starting with hydrogen and over time forming nearly all elements on the periodic table. Elements heavier than iron are produced by neutron capture processes, namely the slow neutron capture process (s- process) and the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). The heaviest elements produced in nature, radioactive actinides such as thorium and uranium, are formed solely by the r-process. While the s-process is known to occur in stars on the asymptotic giant branch, the astrophysical sites of the r-process remain uncertain. So far, neutron star mergers (NSMs) are the only confirmed sites for the r-process, but it is not yet known whether or not NSMs can fully account for the abundance of r-process elements we observe in the Milky Way. Are NSMs the dominant site of r-process production? Where else can the r-process occur? One way we can begin to answer this question is by investigating heavy element abundances derived from stellar observations. In this talk, I will discuss how we use these abundances to trace the production of r-process elements in the Galaxy over time, along with the challenges it presents in different populations of stars.

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