Constraining the cross section of ⁸²Se(n, γ)⁸³Se to validate the β-Oslo method

Neutron star mergers have recently been confirmed as one of the sites of the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). In order to better understand the r-process, nuclear physics properties of the nuclei involved are needed, including neutron-capture cross sections. However, many r-process nuclei are not viable for direct measurements of neutron-capture rates, so their neutron-capture cross sections are poorly known. This has led to the development of indirect measurement techniques such as the β-Oslo method. This method will be validated with the ⁸²Se(n,γ)⁸³Se reaction, where the neutron-capture product, ⁸³Se, can be accessed through the β-decay of ⁸³As, which has been studied at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory with the Summing NaI (SuN) total absorption spectrometer. The nuclear level density (NLD) and γ-ray strength function (γSF) of ⁸³Se have been extracted using the β-Oslo method and fed into a statistical Hauser-Feshbach model to obtain a neutron-capture cross section. The comparison of this constrained neutron-capture cross section to a direct measurement of the neutron capture on ⁸²Se using the Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE) at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be presented.