Experimentally constrained (n, γ) reaction rates relevant to r- and i-process nucleosynthesis

Abstract

The element distribution that we observe in the Universe today tells a fascinating story of nucleosynthesis events that have taken place throughout the 13.7-billion-years-long history starting with the Big Bang. It has been known for a long time that radiative neutron-capture reactions play a major role in synthesizing elements heavier than iron. However, many questions remain when it comes to our understanding of neutron-capture processes in extreme stellar environments. In particular, the intermediate and rapid neutron-capture processes are very challenging to describe, as there exist little or no data on the much-needed neutron-capture rates. In this work, we discuss possibilities to obtain indirect, experimental constrains on these rates by means of the Oslo and the β-Oslo methods.