Supernovae, neutrinos, and nucleosynthesis

Core-collapse supernovae are the violent explosions at the end of the life of massive stars (? 8 ? 10?M?). In these explosions a wide range of elements are synthesized and ejected: low-mass elements (O and Mg) from the hydrostatic evolution, intermediate-mass elements and Fe-group elements from explosive nucleosynthesis, and elements heavier than iron from the ?p-process and potentially an r-process. However, supernova nucleosynthesis predictions are hampered by the not yet fully understood supernova explosion mechanism. In addition, recent progress in observational astronomy paints a fascinating picture for the origin of heavy elements, which is more complicated than the traditional s-, r-, and ?-processes. In this paper, we summarize the status of core-collapse supernova nucleosynthesis.