Cross sections for compound-nuclear (CN) reactions are important for nuclear astrophysics and other applications. Direct measurements are not always possible for the reactions of interest and calculations without experimental constraints can be quite uncertain. Thus indirect approaches, such as the surrogate reaction method (SRM), are being developed to fill the gaps. The SRM, which uses a...
Understanding neutron-induced reaction rates on rare isotopes is important in fission and nucleosynthesis processes and applications in nuclear energy and forensics and stewardship science. Informing these rates requires indirect methods and rare isotope beams. The Surrogate Reaction Method (SRM) [1], where beams interact with light-element targets, has been demonstrated [2] as a valid...
For better understanding of reaction rates for radioactive isotopes relevant for the nu-p process, we directly measured cross sections of $^{56,59}$Ni(n,p), $^{56}$Co(n,p), and $^{59}$Ni(n,$\alpha$) using the LENZ (Low Energy NZ) instruments at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). I will discuss the impacts of updated experimental reaction rates in the nu-p process nucleosynthesis...
Optical potentials remain an indispensable ingredient for modeling many types of nuclear reaction, such as in statistical (Hauser-Feshbach) calculations of radiative capture. As with level densities and γ-ray strength functions, optical potentials for systems near the neutron dripline remain poorly known but are important for characterizing key astrophysical nucleosynthesis pathways. Recent...
