In the "Nuclear Astrophysics" project area, the working group deals with the synthesis of elements in various burning phases and final stages of stars (e.g. supernovae, neutron star merger). The research focus is on gaining a better understanding of the formation of proton-rich, heavy nuclei and determining astrophysically relevant parameters from nuclear physics. From the nuclear physics side, alpha and proton nuclear potentials, gamma strength functions and density of states play a decisive role in the underlying synthesis models. With our experiments we try to find robust, global models for these nuclear physics parameters. To this end, we carry out the following investigations, among others:

• Proton and alpha capture experiments with detection of the reaction in-beam or via activation technique at the tandem accelerator of the University of Cologne, at the PTB in Braunschweig, at RUBION of the Ruhr University Bochum and at other accelerators.
• Accompanying network calculations in statistical models.

The projects are funded by the German Research Foundation, among others.