Cosmic nucleosynthesis: A multi-messenger challenge

Abstract

The origins of the elements and isotopes of cosmic material is a critical aspect of understanding the evolution of the universe. Nucleosynthesis typically requires physical conditions of high temperatures and densities. These are found in the Big Bang, in the interiors of stars, and in explosions with their compressional shocks and high neutrino and neutron fluxes. Many different tools are available to disentangle the composition of cosmic matter, in material of extraterrestrial origins such as cosmic rays, meteorites, stardust grains, lunar and terrestrial sediments, and through astronomical observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. Understanding cosmic abundances and their evolution requires combining such measurements with approaches of astrophysical, nuclear theories and laboratory experiments, and exploiting additional cosmic messengers, such as neutrinos and gravitational waves. Recent years have seen significant progress in almost all these fields; they are presented in this review.The Sun and the solar system are our reference system for abundances of elements and isotopes. Many direct and indirect methods are employed to establish a refined abundance record from the time when the Sun and the Earth were formed. Indications for nucleosynthesis in the local environment when the Sun was formed are derived from meteoritic material and inclusion of radioactive atoms in deep-sea sediments. Spectroscopy at many wavelengths and the neutrino flux from the hydrogen fusion processes in the Sun have established a refined model of how the nuclear energy production shapes stars. Models are required to explore nuclear fusion of heavier elements. These stellar evolution calculations have been confirmed by observations of nucleosynthesis products in the ejecta of stars and supernovae, as captured by stardust grains and by characteristic lines in spectra seen from these objects. One of the successes has been to directly observe γ rays from radioactive material synthesised in stellar explosions, which fully support the astrophysical models. Another has been the observation of radioactive afterglow and characteristic heavy-element spectrum from a neutron-star merger, confirming the neutron rich environments encountered in such rare explosions. The ejecta material captured by Earth over millions of years in sediments and identified through characteristic radio-isotopes suggests that nearby nucleosynthesis occurred in recent history, with further indications for sites of specific nucleosynthesis. Together with stardust and diffuse γ rays from radioactive ejecta, these help to piece together how cosmic materials are transported in interstellar space and re-cycled into and between generations of stars. Our description of cosmic compositional evolution needs such observational support, as it rests on several assumptions that appear challenged by recent recognition of violent events being common during evolution of a galaxy. This overview presents the flow of cosmic matter and the various sites of nucleosynthesis, as understood from combining many techniques and observations, towards the current knowledge of how the universe is enriched with elements.