Executive Summary : | Thermal motion of nuclei is crucial for nucleosynthesis in stellar environments. The pairing phase transition, characterized by a sharp discontinuity in heat capacity, is observed in even-even nuclei due to breaking nucleonic Cooper pairs. Recently, an S-shaped heat capacity was observed in odd-odd deformed hot-rotating 184Re nucleus, indicating deformation-induced pairing. This has led to further investigation in odd-odd and even-odd systems in different mass regions, particularly in nuclei important for nucleosynthesis, especially in slow and rapid neutron capture processes. Nuclear level density and gamma ray strength functions are major sources of uncertainty in predicted reaction rates. Therefore, good knowledge of NLD and γ-SF is needed to obtain accurate results of reaction cross-section and optimize input parameters for estimating astrophysical reaction rates and element abundance. |