Zn neutron capture reactions via the β-Oslo method

Neutron capture reactions far from stability are important to a number of astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes, such as the r- and i-processes. These processes are responsible for the creation of the majority of the neutron-rich heavy elements, but they are not yet fully understood. This is because of incomplete nuclear data in this region due to the difficulty in creating both neutron and exotic radioactive ion beams. The β-Oslo method uses β decay to populate highly excited nuclear states in the compound nucleus of interest and is used to extract the nuclear level densities (NLD) and gamma-ray strength functions (γSF) from the decay of these states. These experimentally-determined properties reduce uncertainties in theoretical neutron capture rates. I will specifically discuss the β decay of ^76,77Cu and the implementation of the β-Oslo method to reduce uncertainties in the current ^76,77Zn(n,γ) reaction rates. These particular reactions are both in the mass region important for the weak r-process.