Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ChETEC-INFRA (Chemical Elements as Tracers of the Evolution of the Cosmos - Infrastructures for Nuclear Astrophysics)
Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30
ChETEC-INFRA is a Starting Community of 13 Research Infrastructures for Nuclear Astrophysics. This research field lies at the interface between computational astrophysics (infrastructure: supercomputers), astronomy (infrastructure: optical telescopes), and nuclear physics (infrastructure: small accelerators). The aim of nuclear astrophysics is to understand the origin of the *Ch*emical *E*lements as *T*racers of the *E*volution of the *C*osmos. Hence the acronym. The ChETEC-INFRA project aims to network and make accessible its diverse set of infrastructures to researchers, many of them with small groups from small institutions in countries that lack such infrastructures. A strong outreach component to early-career researchers and to high-school students is an integral part of the project. Unified, complimentary infrastructure access, with proposals selected based on scientific excellence, and targeted improvements to the usability of the infrastructures are further highlights.
The diverse set of infrastructures from three disciplines has been successfully unified in a unique access provision system, with so far twelve calls for proposals published and reviewed by the ChETEC-INFRA independent user selection panel. The coherence of the consortium is ensured by biweekly, inclusive video conferences, complemented by an annual in-person General Assembly and many topical interactions and meetings. The project has provided and reported 3936 hours of accelerator usage (including 1515 hours of over provisioning at no cost to the EU), 76 nights of telescope time, and 52,000 cpu hours of supercomputer time in its first two reporting periods. After the very successful SNAQs online scientific school series during the Covid-19 pandemic (1293 participants, 34% female, in 13 editions), ChETEC-INFRA went back to supporting in-person schools: It has provided support to twelve in-person scientific schools with over 680 participants (34% female). The project instigated several new scientific schools for PhD students: the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics school (2022 in Geneva, 2024 in Dresden, Germany), the ChETEC-INFRA Observational school (2023 in Ondrejov, Czech Republic), the Nuclei in the Cosmos School (2023 in Daejon/Korea), the i-process Nucleosynthesis school (2023 in Limassol, Cyprus), and the n_TOF Nuclear Physics Winter School (2024 in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France). Two new full-day outreach events for high school students, called Nuclear Astrophysics Masterclasses, have been developed, translated into seven languages, and performed 21 times, reaching 430 students (50% female) so far. A high number of scientific resources has been created and is now available on the project web page www.chetec-infra.eu. These include six reports useful for practical aspects covering beams, targets, simulations, and industry contacts. Nine different databases have been created and are available via the web page, from nuclear reaction rates, stellar trajectories and solar models, to abundance corrections, and isotopic analysis results databases. The accessibility is guaranteed by online courses and tutorials, and there are several online tools on the web page helping guide experiments and interpret their results. Finally, well over 100 peer-reviewed papers with explicit ChETEC-INFRA acknowledgment have been published, and made available in green or gold open access.
ChETEC-INFRA has been a driver of progress in nuclear astrophysics. In addition to the interdisciplinary transnational access with well-subscribed calls published every three months and a high number of publications with explicit project acknowledgment, there are also a number of structural improvements reached by ChETEC-INFRA.
For the first time, infrastructures from all three domains of nuclear astrophysics (observation, experiment, computation) are made accessible in a unified way. Reports and tools to aid users which are not familiar with these infrastructures have been developed and are made available via the project web page. The central hub for all information in ChETEC-INFRA, the project web site, links to many online courses, data resources, a dedicated Youtube channel, and to project publications - all of these developed in the framework of the project. Several new targets have been developed for the nuclear labs, analysis pipelines for supercomputers, and dedicated abundance corrections and a radial velocity database for the telescopes.
The scientific schools and the other ChETEC-INFRA activities have built a strong link between the small labs networked by ChETEC-INFRA and the big labs, as evidenced by the strong mention of CHETEC-INFRA in the NuPECC Long Range Plan for Nuclear Physics in Europe 2024. Joint experiments have started, using the complementarities of big-lab ion storage rings and small-lab ion accelerators.
The direct scientific impact of ChETEC-INFRA is measured, amongst other ways, by the strong return of the field after the Covid-19 restrictions, as evidenced by the highly oversubscribed series of Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics conferences (2022 Geneva, 2024 Dresden) and scientific schools. There have been a high number of very diverse publications supported by ChETEC-INFRA, showing the interdisciplinary character of the field.
In an era of demographic and cultural challenges, the ChETEC-INFRA outreach activities, including nuclear astrophysics masterclasses and other outreach events, are contributing to fostering a strong understanding and appreciation of science in society at large and among young people in particular, and help interest young people in scientific careers.
For the first time, infrastructures from all three domains of nuclear astrophysics (observation, experiment, computation) are made accessible in a unified way. Reports and tools to aid users which are not familiar with these infrastructures have been developed and are made available via the project web page. The central hub for all information in ChETEC-INFRA, the project web site, links to many online courses, data resources, a dedicated Youtube channel, and to project publications - all of these developed in the framework of the project. Several new targets have been developed for the nuclear labs, analysis pipelines for supercomputers, and dedicated abundance corrections and a radial velocity database for the telescopes.
The scientific schools and the other ChETEC-INFRA activities have built a strong link between the small labs networked by ChETEC-INFRA and the big labs, as evidenced by the strong mention of CHETEC-INFRA in the NuPECC Long Range Plan for Nuclear Physics in Europe 2024. Joint experiments have started, using the complementarities of big-lab ion storage rings and small-lab ion accelerators.
The direct scientific impact of ChETEC-INFRA is measured, amongst other ways, by the strong return of the field after the Covid-19 restrictions, as evidenced by the highly oversubscribed series of Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics conferences (2022 Geneva, 2024 Dresden) and scientific schools. There have been a high number of very diverse publications supported by ChETEC-INFRA, showing the interdisciplinary character of the field.
In an era of demographic and cultural challenges, the ChETEC-INFRA outreach activities, including nuclear astrophysics masterclasses and other outreach events, are contributing to fostering a strong understanding and appreciation of science in society at large and among young people in particular, and help interest young people in scientific careers.