2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/81751Nucleosynthesis calculations require nuclear level densities for hundreds or even thousands of nuclides. Ideally one would like to constrain these level densities by microscopically motivated yet computationally cheap models. A statistical approach suggests that low moments of the Hamiltonian might be sufficient. Recently Zuker proposed a simple combinatoric formula for level densities based upon the binomial distribution. We rigorously test the binomial formula against full scale shell-model diagonalization calculations for selected $sd$- and $pf$-shell nuclides and also against Monte Carlo path integration calculations. We find that the fourth moment is as important as the third moment to a good description of the level density, as well as partitioning of the model space into subspaces.21 pages, 6 figuresNuclear Theorytext