Heavy elements in astrophysical nucleosynthesis

With the many successes of covariant density functional theory (CDFT) as seen in the previous chapters, there has been growing interest over the last years to examine directly their applicability in astrophysical nucleosynthesis simulations. This chapter thus concentrates on the very recent applications of CDFT in astrophysics nucleosynthesis, ranging from the calculations of nuclear physics inputs - masses and beta-decay half-lives - for rapid-neutron (r-) and rapid-proton (rp-) capture processes, to the nucleosynthesis studies that employed these inputs and to nuclear cosmochronology. The concepts of nucleosynthesis process and formulas on beta-decays are sketched briefly.