Stellar neutron capture reactions at low and high temperature

© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, to view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.The determination of astrophysical reaction rates requires different approaches depending on the conditions in hydrostatic and explosive burning. The focus here is on astrophysical reaction rates for radiative neutron capture reactions. Relevant nucleosynthesis processes not only involve the s-process but also the i-, r- and γ-processes, which from the nuclear perspective mainly differ in the relative interaction energies of neutrons and nuclei, and in the nuclear level densities of the involved nuclei. Emphasis is put on the difference between reactions at low and high temperature. Possible complications in the prediction and measurement of these reaction rates are illustrated and the connection between theory and experiment is addressed.Peer reviewe