EXPERIMENTALLY CONSTRAINED (n,γ) REACTION RATES RELEVANT TO r- AND i-PROCESS NUCLEOSYNTHESIS.

The element distribution that we observe in the Universe today tells a fascinating story of nucleo synthesis events thath avetaken place throughout the 13.7-billion-years-long history starting with the Big Bang. It has been known for along time that radiative neutron-capturereactionsplayamajor 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]