The Impact of Neutron-Nucleus Interaction Uncertainties on Astrophysical Reacton Rates

Neutron capture rates of species far from stability play an important role for modeling the production of heavy elements via the rapid neutron capture process (r-process).

Due to lack of experimental accessibility, various nuclear theory inputs are required to understand these reactions, including a description of nucleon-nucleus interactions via

optical model potentials (OMPs). The OMP has the most complete uncertainty quantification (UQ) among these inputs; these uncertainties can be propagated into robust uncertainties on reaction rates, and on the resulting astrophysical abundances. We use an uncertainty-quantified version of the Koning-Delaroche (KD) OMP to generate ensembles of neutron capture rates to examine the impact of nuclear physics UQ.