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This paper addresses some of the of open problems in photonuclear physics which await to be resolved using high-brilliance γ-ray beams, such as precise measurements of total or partial cross sections of photonuclear reactions related to astroparticle physics and nuclear astrophysics. The readiness for such measurements at ELI-NP, as well as the state-of-the-art instrumentation which is available are discussed. The possibility to utilize γ-beams with orbital angular momentum in photonuclear experiments is addressed, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was conducted at the High Intensity γ-ray Source (HIγS) facility at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) in Durham, NC, USA to measure the cross-section of the key astrophysical thermonuclear reaction 12C(α,γ)16O by means of its inverse photo-disintegration process. A high-intensity monochromatic γ-ray beam interacted with the CO2 gas in the active volume of the Warsaw active target TPC detector. The reaction products were detected and their momenta reconstructed, so to also determine angular correlations. Data were collected at 15 beam energies ranging from 8.51 to 13.9 MeV. Preliminary results are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the main directions of present-day studies with quasimonochromatic γ beams is discussed with an emphasis on the research opportunities which will be offered at the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility at Magurele near Bucharest in Romania. Experiments with γ beams at the extremes of high temperatures are outlined, with an emphasis on prospective studies related to nuclear astrophysics and astroparticle physics. Some of the experimental setups for nuclear structure, reaction, and astrophysics studies, which are available at ELI-NP, are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of implementation of the ELI-NP high-power laser system and the high-brilliance gamma beam system is reported. The emerging experimental program at the facility in nuclear physics in astrophysics is discussed, with emphasis of the considered day-one experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility, under construction in Magurele near Bucharest in Romania, will provide high-intensity and high-resolution gamma ray beams that can be used to address hotly debated problems in nuclear astrophysics, such as the accurate measurements of the cross sections of the 24Mg(γ,α)20Ne reaction, that is fundamental to determine the effective rate of 28Si destruction right before the core collapse and the subsequent supernova explosion. For this purpose, a silicon strip detector array (named ELISSA, acronym for Extreme Light Infrastructure Silicon Strip Array) will be realized in a common effort by ELI-NP and Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN-LNS), in order to measure excitation functions and angular distributions over a wide energy and angular range. A prototype of ELISSA was built and tested at INFN-LNS in Catania (Italy) with the support of ELI-NP. In this occasion, we have carried out experiments with alpha sources and with a 11 MeV 7Li beam. Thanks to our approach, the first results of those tests show up a very good energy resolution (better than 1%) and very good position resolution, of the order of 1 mm. Moreover, a threshold of 150 keV can be easily achieved with no cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The astrophysical p-process is an important way of nucleosynthesis to produce the stable and proton-rich nuclei beyond Fe which can not be reached by the s- and r-processes. In the present study, the astrophysical reaction rates of (γ, n), (γ, p), and (γ, α) reactions are computed within the modern reaction code TALYS for about 3000 stable and proton-rich nuclei with 12 < Z < 110. The nuclear structure ingredients involved in the calculation are determined from experimental data whenever available and, if not, from global microscopic nuclear models. In particular, both of the Wood-Saxon potential and the double folding potential with density dependent M3Y (DDM3Y) effective interaction are used for the calculations. It is found that the photonuclear reaction rates are very sensitive to the nuclear potential, and the better determination of nuclear potential would be important to reduce the uncertainties of reaction rates. Meanwhile, the Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility is being developed, which will provide the great opportunity to experimentally study the photonuclear reactions in p-process. Simulations of the experimental setup for the measurements of the photonuclear reactions 96Ru(γ, p) and 96Ru(γ, α) are performed. It is shown that the experiments of photonuclear reactions in p-process based on ELI-NP are quite promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]