The investigation of many astrophysical processes depends upon accurate information about nuclear reaction rates. Examples include X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars and white dwarfs in binary star systems, which detonate nova or supernova explosions.

However, nuclear capture reactions of astrophysical interest occur at extremely low energies, and thus are challenging to study experimentally due to Coulomb repulsion. They may also involve compound resonances stemming from a delicate interplay of many quantum states in the colliding bodies. The multi-channel algebraic scattering (MCAS) method is one that addresses both of these challenges; it has a history of successfully modelling narrow compound resonance structures, incorporating as many channels as are important for a given problem, and has had success recreating the low-energy, non-resonant elastic scattering cross sections required.

This talk will provide an overview of MCAS' modelling of elastic scattering reactions, and detail progress in extending these to capture reactions.