Calculations of Nuclear Reactions of Astrophysical Interest Involving Unstable Nuclei

Nuclear reactions involving unstable nuclei play an important role in nucleosyn-thesis. Such reactions are mainly associated with explosive astrophysical scenarios occurring at the nal stages of stellar evolution. For many nuclear reactions involving unstable nuclei the direct reaction mechanism cannot be neglected and may even be the dominant reaction mechanism. For example, the direct{reaction mechanism can be important for neutron capture by neutron{rich nuclei. We investigate the role of the direct{reaction mechanism for the two reactions 36 S(n,) 37 S and 124 Sn(n,) 125 Sn on the neutron{rich border of the region of stability. Nuclear{structure models are indispensable for extrapolating reaction rates to nuclei near and far{oo the region of stability. The above two reactions are considered as benchmarks for diierent nuclear{structure models (Shell Model, Relativistic Mean Field Theory, Quasi Particle Random Phase Approximation, Hartree Fock Bogoliubov Theory).