332 research outputs found
30S Beam Development and X-ray Bursts
Over the past three years, we have worked on developing a well-characterized
30S radioactive beam to be used in a future experiment aiming to directly
measure the 30S(alpha,p) stellar reaction rate within the Gamow window of Type
I X-ray bursts. The importance of the 30S(alpha,p) reaction to X-ray bursts is
discussed. Given the astrophysical motivation, the successful results of and
challenges involved in the production of a low-energy 30S beam are detailed.
Finally, an overview of our future plans regarding this on-going project are
presented.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 5th European Summer School on Experimental
Nuclear Astrophysics, Santa Tecla, Sicily, September 200
Nuclear uncertainties in the NeNa-MgAl cycles and production of 22Na and 26Al during nova outbursts
Classical novae eject significant amounts of nuclear processed material into
the interstellar medium. Among the isotopes synthesized during such explosions,
two radioactive nuclei deserve a particular attention: 22Na and 26Al. In this
paper, we investigate the nuclear paths leading to 22Na and 26Al production
during nova outbursts by means of an implicit, hydrodynamic code that follows
the course of the thermonuclear runaway from the onset of accretion up to the
ejection stage. New evolutionary sequences of ONe novae have been computed,
using updated nuclear reaction rates relevant to 22Na and 26Al production.
Special attention is focused on the role played by nuclear uncertainties within
the NeNa and MgAl cycles in the synthesis of such radioactive species. From the
series of hydrodynamic models, which assume upper, recommended or lower
estimates of the reaction rates, we derive limits on the production of both
22Na and 26Al. We outline a list of nuclear reactions which deserve new
experimental investigations in order to reduce the wide dispersion introduced
by nuclear uncertainties in the 22Na and 26Al yields.Comment: 46 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Testing the continuum discretized coupled channel method for deuteron induced reactions
The Continuum Discretized Coupled Channels (CDCC) method is a well
established theory for direct nuclear reactions which includes breakup to all
orders. Alternatively, the 3-body problem can be solved exactly within the
Faddeev formalism which explicitly includes breakup and transfer channels to
all orders. With the aim to understand how CDCC compares with the exact 3-body
Faddeev formulation, we study deuteron induced reactions on: i) Be at
MeV; ii) C at MeV; and iii) Ca at MeV. We
calculate elastic, transfer and breakup cross sections. Overall, the
discrepancies found for elastic scattering are small with the exception of very
backward angles. For transfer cross sections at low energy 10 MeV/u, CDCC
is in good agreement with the Faddeev-type results and the discrepancy
increases with beam energy. On the contrary, breakup observables obtained with
CDCC are in good agreement with Faddeev-type results for all but the lower
energies considered here.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure
Indirect techniques in nuclear astrophysics. Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient and Trojan Horse
Owing to the presence of the Coulomb barrier at astrophysically relevant
kinetic energies it is very difficult, or sometimes impossible, to measure
astrophysical reaction rates in the laboratory. That is why different indirect
techniques are being used along with direct measurements. Here we address two
important indirect techniques, the asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC)
and the Trojan Horse (TH) methods. We discuss the application of the ANC
technique for calculation of the astrophysical processes in the presence of
subthreshold bound states, in particular, two different mechanisms are
discussed: direct capture to the subthreshold state and capture to the
low-lying bound states through the subthreshold state, which plays the role of
the subthreshold resonance. The ANC technique can also be used to determine the
interference sign of the resonant and nonresonant (direct) terms of the
reaction amplitude. The TH method is unique indirect technique allowing one to
measure astrophysical rearrangement reactions down to astrophysically relevant
energies. We explain why there is no Coulomb barrier in the sub-process
amplitudes extracted from the TH reaction. The expressions for the TH amplitude
for direct and resonant cases are presented.Comment: Invited talk on the Conference "Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics II",
Debrecen, Hungary, 16-20 May, 200
Nucleosynthesis in ONeMg Novae: Models versus Observations to Constrain the Masses of ONeMg White Dwarfs and Their Envelopes
Nucleosynthesis in ONeMg novae has been investigated with the wide ranges of
three parameters, i.e., the white dwarf mass, the envelope mass at ignition,
and the initial composition. A quasi-analytic one-zone approach is used with an
up-to-date nuclear reaction network. The nucleosynthesis results show
correlation with the peak temperatures or the cooling timescales during
outbursts. Among the combinations of white dwarf and envelope masses which give
the same peak temperature, the explosion is more violent for a lower white
dwarf mass owing to its smaller gravitational potential. Comparison of the
nucleosynthesis results with observations implies that at least two-third of
the white dwarf masses for the observed ONeMg novae are ,
which are significantly lower than estimated by previous hydrodynamic studies
but consistent with the observations of V1974 Cyg. Moreover, the envelope
masses derived from the comparison are , which are in
good agreement with the ejecta masses estimated from observations but
significantly higher than in previous hydrodynamic studies. With such a low
mass white dwarf and a high mass envelope, the nova can produce interesting
amounts of -ray emitters Be, Na, and Al. We suggest
that V1974 Cyg has produced Na as high as the upper limit derived from
the COMPTEL survey. In addition, a non-negligible part of the Galactic
Al may originate from ONeMg novae, if not the major contributors. Both
the future INTEGRAL survey for these -ray emitters and abundance
estimates derived from ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared spectroscopies
will impose a severe constraint on the current nova models.Comment: 21 pages, 23 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, Vol.
523, No.1, September 20, 1999; preprint with embedded images can be obtained
from http://th.nao.ac.jp/~wanajo/journal/onenova.p
First application of the Trojan Horse Method with a Radioactive Ion Beam: study of the F()O}} reaction at astrophysical energies
Measurement of nuclear cross sections at astrophysical energies involving
unstable species is one of the most challenging tasks in experimental nuclear
physics. The use of indirect methods is often unavoidable in this scenario. In
this paper the Trojan Horse Method is applied for the first time to a
radioactive ion beam induced reaction studying the
F()O process at low energies relevant to astrophysics
via the three body reaction H(F,O)n. The knowledge
of the F()O reaction rate is crucial to understand
the nova explosion phenomena. The cross section of this reaction is
characterized by the presence of several resonances in Ne and possibly
interference effects among them. The results reported in Literature are not
satisfactory and new investigations of the F()O
reaction cross section will be useful. In the present work the spin-parity
assignments of relevant levels have been discussed and the astrophysical
S-factor has been extracted considering also interference effectsComment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Nuclear structure of 30S and its implications for nucleosynthesis in classical novae
The uncertainty in the 29P(p,gamma)30S reaction rate over the temperature
range of 0.1 - 1.3 GK was previously determined to span ~4 orders of magnitude
due to the uncertain location of two previously unobserved 3+ and 2+ resonances
in the 4.7 - 4.8 MeV excitation region in 30S. Therefore, the abundances of
silicon isotopes synthesized in novae, which are relevant for the
identification of presolar grains of putative nova origin, were uncertain by a
factor of 3. To investigate the level structure of 30S above the proton
threshold (4394.9(7) keV), a charged-particle spectroscopy and an in-beam
gamma-ray spectroscopy experiments were performed. Differential cross sections
of the 32S(p,t)30S reaction were measured at 34.5 MeV. Distorted wave Born
approximation calculations were performed to constrain the spin-parity
assignments of the observed levels. An energy level scheme was deduced from
gamma-gamma coincidence measurements using the 28Si(3He,n-gamma)30S reaction.
Spin-parity assignments based on measurements of gamma-ray angular
distributions and gamma-gamma directional correlation from oriented nuclei were
made for most of the observed levels of 30S. As a result, the resonance
energies corresponding to the excited states in 4.5 MeV - 6 MeV region,
including the two astrophysically important states predicted previously, are
measured with significantly better precision than before. The uncertainty in
the rate of the 29P(p,gamma)30S reaction is substantially reduced over the
temperature range of interest. Finally, the influence of this rate on the
abundance ratios of silicon isotopes synthesized in novae are obtained via 1D
hydrodynamic nova simulations.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
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