Investigating the astrophysical ²²Ne(p, γ)²³Na and ²²Mg(p, γ)²³Al reactions with a multi-channel scattering formalism

The reaction ²²Ne(p, γ)²³Na is key to the NeNa cycle of stellar nucleogenesis, and better understanding of the ²²Mg(p, γ)²³Al reaction is needed to understand the ²²Na puzzle in ONe white dwarf novae. We aim to study these reactions using a multi-channel algebraic scattering (MCAS) formalism for low-energy nucleon-nucleus scattering, recently expanded to investigate radiative capture. As a first step towards this goal, we here calculate the energy levels of the mass-23 (Ne, Mg, Na, Al) nuclei. This is not only because the resonant structure of these nuclei are related to the astrophysical -rates of interest, but also because the interaction parameters determined for describing the energy levels are an integral part of the future calculation of the astrophysical reactions when using the MCAS scheme.