Constraining the ^75,76Zn neutron capture reactions via the β-Oslo method for the weak r-process

Many questions remain about neutron capture processes occurring far from stability. The r-process in particular is responsible for the synthesis of a large portion of the neutron-rich heavy elements, but because of a lack of nuclear data in this region due to the difficulty in creating both neutron and exotic radioactive ion beams and targets, it is not yet fully understood. To constrain the nuclear properties in this region, we turn to novel techniques. One of these indirect methods is the β-Oslo method, which uses β decay to populate highly-excited nuclear states in the compound nucleus of interest. The decay of these states is then used to extract the nuclear level densities (NLD) and γ-ray strength functions (γSF). By implementing these experimentally-determined statistical properties in the calculation of theoretical neutron-capture cross-sections, uncertainties in the rate can be greatly reduced. Results from the β decay of ^76,77Cu in the calculation of the ^75,76Zn(n,γ)^76,77Zn reaction rates will be presented, as well as their impact on the modeling of the weak r-process abundances in the A~80 region.