Investigating β-decay properties of spherical nuclei along the possible r-process path

The spherical QRPA method is used for the calculations of the $\beta$-decay properties of the neutron-rich nuclei in the region near the neutron magic numbers N=82 and N=126 which are important for determination of the r-process path. Our calculations differ from previous works by the use of realistic forces for the proton-neutron interaction. Both the allowed and first-forbidden $\beta$-decays are included. Detailed comparisons with the experimental measurements and the previous shell-model calculations are performed. The results for half-lives and beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities will serve as input for the r-process nucleosynthesis simulations.