Toward precision mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei relevant to r-process nucleosynthesis

The open question of where, when, and how the heavy elements beyond iron enrich our Universe has triggered a new era in nuclear physics studies. Of all the relevant nuclear physics inputs, the mass of very neutron-rich nuclides is a key quantity for revealing the origin of heavy elements beyond iron. Although the precise determination of this property is a great challenge, enormous progress has been made in recent decades, and it has contributed significantly to both nuclear structure and astrophysical nucleosynthesis studies. In this review, we first survey our present knowledge of the nuclear mass surface, emphasizing the importance of nuclear mass precision in r-process calculations. We then discuss recent progress in various methods of nuclear mass measurement with a few selected examples. For each method, we focus on recent breakthroughs and discuss possible ways of improving the weighing of r-process nuclides.