Systematic study of photoneutron reactionsjust above the neutron emission thresholdVom Fachbereich Physik¨der Technischen Universitat Darmstadtzur Erlangung des Gradeseines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.)genehmigteDissertationvonDipl. Phys. Jens Hasperaus Bad HersfeldJanuar 2008DarmstadtD 17Dissertation eingereicht am 30. Januar 2008Mundliche¨ Prufung¨ am 14. April 2008Prufer¨Professor Dr. rer. nat. Norbert Pietralla (Referent) Dr. rer. nat. Andreas Zilges (Korreferent)Professor Dr. rer. nat. Karlheinz Langanke Dr. rer. nat. Thomas WaltherIt is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories,instead of theories to suit facts.Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930)A Scandal in BohemiaAbstractThis thesis deals with the systematic study of photoneutron reactions in the astrophysicallyrelevant energy region just above the neutron threshold.Photodisintegration reactions play a decisive role in the nucleosynthesis of elements heavierthan iron. A large number of proton rich isotopes are believed to be exclusively produced by acombination of (g;n), (g; p) and (g;a) reactions during supernova explosions in the so calledp process. Astrophysical network calculations of this process have to account for thousands ofphotodisintegration reaction rates which mainly need to be adopted from theoretical predictions.