The impact of individual nuclear properties on $r$-process nucleosynthesis

The astrophysical rapid neutron capture process or `rprocess' of nucleosynthesis is believed to be responsible for the production of approximately half the heavy element abundances found in nature. This multifaceted problem remains one of the greatest open challenges in all of physics. Knowledge of nuclear physics properties such as masses, \betadecay and neutron capture rates, as well as \betadelayed neutron emission probabilities are...