Impact of low-energy multipole excitations and pygmy resonances on radiative nucleon captures

Nuclear structure theory is considered in the framework of the development of a microscopic model for nucleon-capture astrophysical implementations. In particular, microscopically obtained strength functions from a theoretical method incorporating density functional theory and quasiparticle-phonon model are used as an input in a statistical reaction model. The approach is applied in systematic investigations of the impact of low-energy multipole excitations and pygmy resonances on dipole photoabsorption and radiative neutron and proton capture cross sections of key s- and r-process nuclei which is discussed in comparison with the experiment. For the cases of the short-lived isotopes ⁸⁹Zr and ⁹¹Mo theoretical predictions are made. (authors)