Our understanding of the origin of heavy elements by the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) has made great progress in the last years. In addition to the gravitational wave and kilonova observations for GW170817, there have been major advances in the hydrodynamical simulations of neutron star mergers and core-collapse supernovae, in the microphysics included in those simulations (neutrinos and high density equation of state), in galactic chemical evolution models, in observations of old stars in our galaxy and in dwarf galaxies. This talk will report on recent breakthroughs in understanding the extreme environments in which the formation of the heavy elements occurs, as well as open questions regarding the astrophysics and nuclear physics involved.

Understanding and actively shaping quantum entanglement in many-body systems is a key challenge for modern quantum technologies. Recently, monitored quantum dynamics — quantum dynamics with mid-circuit measurements — has emerged as a powerful tool for harnessing entanglement in NISQ devices and simulating non-equilibrium dynamics in condensed matter systems. In this talk, I will discuss our recent understanding of entanglement in monitored quantum dynamics from the viewpoint of emergent many-body phases and universality. Monitored dynamics generate wave functions with robust entanglement structures, which depend only on global properties such as symmetry and dimensionality, thereby defining entanglement phases of monitored quantum matter. We anticipate a symmetry classification of monitored matter akin to equilibrium quantum matter in Hamiltonian systems, which I will introduce using exemplary systems in one and two dimensions. I will also highlight our recent analytical and numerical advances and how they can be applied to engineer entanglement, for instance, in adaptive quantum circuits and driven quantum materials.