Title: The Long Wait for T Coronae Borealis – How Nuclear Physics Informs Our Understanding of Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract: Classical novae are the result of hydrogen-rich matter exploding on the surface of a white dwarf. That matter is accreted from a nearby companion star in a binary system, building a dense layer that eventually explodes as nuclear reactions ignite the material. While they are bright explosions, novae do not release enough energy to completely disrupt either of the stars in their system, thus opening the possibility of re-igniting at some point in the future. T Coronae Borealis is the closest such “recurrent nova” with a recurrent time of 80 years. At a distance of just 2600 lightyears from Earth, when it does explode astronomers expect it to be a gold mine of information with high-resolution spectroscopic instruments and space-based gamma-ray observatories eagerly awaiting data. T Coronae Borealis is now close to overdue its next outburst! However, these observations of nova explosions can only be used to constrain the physical processes buried deep inside if they can be reliably compared with stellar models. I will detail some of our recent work on constraining stellar models through their nuclear reaction inputs. At the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory we measure the nuclear structure of astrophysical isotopes at high precision. I will describe some experiments that lead to better understanding of nuclear processes in novae, how we identify the key reactions, and how the impacts of our measurements are quantified. Finally I will look to the future, and how upgrades are underway to expand our capabilities for measuring some of the more challenging reactions important for nuclear astrophysics.