Neutrino-nucleon interactions in dense and hot matter

Neutrinos play an important role in compact star
astrophysics: neutrino-heating is one of the main ingredients in
core-collapse supernovae, neutrino-matter interactions determine the
composition of matter in binary neutron star mergers and have among
others a strong impact on conditions for heavy element nucleosynthesis
and neutron star cooling is dominated by neutrino emission except for
very old stars. Many works in the last decades have shown that in
dense matter medium effects considerably change the neutrino-matter
interaction rates, whereas many astrophysical simulations use analytic
approximations which are often far from reproducing more complete
calculations. In this talk I will discuss some recent developments in the field and highlight efforts to make more realistic results usable in simulations.