Extending the Dispersive Optical Model to β-unstable systems

Optical potentials remain an indispensable ingredient for modeling many types of nuclear reaction, such as in statistical (Hauser-Feshbach) calculations of radiative capture. As with level densities and γ-ray strength functions, optical potentials for systems near the neutron dripline remain poorly known but are important for characterizing key astrophysical nucleosynthesis pathways.