Uncertainties in statistical model calculations of neutron capture rates away from stability and astrophysical implications

George Perdikakis, Central Michigan University
Monday, Apr 09, 12:30 PM - JINA-CEE Pizza Lunch
1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building

Abstract:  In the current multi-messenger era, a multitude of observational information offers exciting opportunities to piece together an answer to the puzzle of the synthesis of the elements. Such efforts many times depend critically on the microphysics input and particularly on our ability to reproduce in nucleosynthesis calculations intricate features of abundance yield patterns in order to evaluate the yield outcome of various scenarios. For such comparisons to be meaningful, however, uncertainties in the nuclear input that affect nucleosynthesis calculations have to be identified and their effect evaluated. In this talk, I take a look at the sources of uncertainty that are most influential to the extrapolation of Hauser-Feshbach calculations away from stability and trace them back to the modeling of statistical properties such as level densities and gamma-ray strengths. An attempt at the quantification of uncertainties in Hauser-Feshbach theory extrapolations is presented together with examples of the ways such studies can inform experimental and theoretical work in Nuclear Astrophysics.