TITLE: Studies of thermonuclear reactions in stars

SPEAKER: Professor Christian Iliadis,

TIME: Thursday Nov. 14, 2002 at 4 PM

PLACE: George P. Williams, Jr. Lecture Hall, (Olin 101)

Nuclear astrophysics is a field at the interface of physics and astronomy. It has been known for a long time that stars produce energy by nuclear fusion. But the complex nuclear processes and the interplay of microscopic and macroscopic phenomena is far from understood. The talk will focus on the nova phenomenon, on current obstacles which have prevented us in the past to perform sufficiently sensitive laboratory measurements of certain fusion reactions, and on important new ideas to overcome present experimental limitations.