Effective Field Theory and Electroweak Processes in Nuclei

The accurate theoretical treatment of low-energy electro-weak processes in lightest nuclei is of great current importance not only in the context of nuclear physics {\it per se} but also from the astrophysical and particle-physics viewpoints. I give a brief survey of the recent remarkable progress in this domain.Comment: Talk given at the Erice School 2009, Erice, Italy, September 200

Neutrino-Nucleus Reactions

Neutrino-nucleus reactions as applied to astrophysics are reviewed.Comment: 74,USC(NT)-93-

The Solar HepHep Process

The $Hep$ process is a weak-interaction reaction, $He3 + p \to He4 + e^+ + \nu_e$, which occurs in the sun. There is renewed interest in $Hep$ owing to current experimental efforts to extract from the observed solar neutrino spectrum information on non-standard physics in the neutrino sector. $Hep$ produces highest-energy solar neutrinos, although their flux is quite modest. This implies that the $Hep$ neutrios can at some level influence the solar neutrino spectrum near its upper end. Therefore, a precise interpretation of the observed solar neutrino spectrum requires an accurate estimate of the $Hep$ rate. This is an interesting but challenging task. We describe the difficulties involved and how the recent theoretical developments in nuclear physics have enabled us to largely overcome these difficulties. A historical survey of $Hep$ calculations is followed by an overview of the latest developments. We compare the results obtained in the conventional nuclear physics approach and those obtained in a newly developed effective field theory approach. We also discuss the current status of the experiments relevant to $Hep$.Comment: Published in Ann. Rev. Nuc. Part. Sci. vol. 54, 19 (2004). AR209 macros are include