Nuclear physics input for solar models

We discuss microscopic cluster model descriptions of two solar nuclear reactions, Be7(p,gamma)B8 and He3(He3,2p)He4. The low-energy reaction cross section of Be7(p,gamma)B8, which determines the high-energy solar neutrino flux, is constrained by Be7 and B8 observables. Our results show that a small value of the zero-energy cross section is rather unlikely. In He3(He3,2p)He4 we study the effects of a possible virtual state on the cross section. Although, we have found no indication for such a state so far, its existence cannot be ruled out yet. We calculate the He3(He3,2p)He4 and H3(H3,2n)He4 cross sections in a continuum-discretized coupled channel approximation, and find a good general agreement with the data.Comment: 9 pages with 4 figures. Invited talk given at the "XVII RCNP International Symposium on Innovative Computational Methods in Nuclear Many-Body Problems" (November 10-15, 1997, Osaka, Japan). To appear in the conference proceedings. The postscript file with color figures and more information are available at http://qmc.lanl.gov/~csot

Microscopic calculations for solar nuclear reactions

We have studied the 4He(3He,gamma)7Be, 3He(3He,2p)4He, and 7Be(p,gamma)8B reactions of the solar p-p chain, using microscopic cluster models. Among other results, we showed that the 6Li+p channel has a nontrivial effect on the 7Be-producing reaction, that the existence of a resonance in 6Be close to the 3He+3He threshold is rather unlikely, and that the correlations between some properties of 7Be/8B and the low-energy cross section of 7Be(p,gamma)8B might help one to constrain the value of the S_17(0) astrophysical S-factor.Comment: 3 pages with 1 figure. Proceedings of the Nuclei in the Cosmos Conference, Aarhus, Denmark, June 27-July 1, 2000. To be published in Nuclear Physics A. The postscript file and more information are available at http://matrix.elte.hu/~csoto and http://www.dfi.aau.dk/~langanke

Fine-tuning the basic forces of nature through the triple-alpha process in red giant stars

We show that the synthesis of carbon and oxygen through the triple-alpha process in red giant stars is extremely sensitive to the fine details of the nucleon-nucleon (N-N) interaction. A +/-0.5% change in the strength of the N-N force would reduce either the carbon or oxygen abundance by as much as a factor of 30-1000. This result may be used to constrain some fundamental parameters of the Standard Model.Comment: 3 pages with 2 figures. Proceedings of the Nuclei in the Cosmos Conference, Aarhus, Denmark, June 27-July 1, 2000. To be published in Nuclear Physics A. The postscript file and more information are available at http://matrix.elte.hu/~csoto http://info.tuwien.ac.at/e142/ and http://www.MPA-Garching.MPG.DE/~schlattl

Stellar production rates of carbon and its abundance in the universe

The bulk of the carbon in our universe is produced in the triple-alpha process in helium-burning red giant stars. We calculated the change of the triple-alpha reaction rate in a microscopic 12-nucleon model of the C-12 nucleus and looked for the effects of minimal variations of the strengths of the underlying interactions. Stellar model calculations were performed with the alternative reaction rates. Here, we show that outside a narrow window of 0.5 and 4% of the values of the strong and Coulomb forces, respectively, the stellar production of carbon or oxygen is reduced by factors of 30 to 1000.Comment: 6 pages with 1 figure. Science, 2000 July 7 issue. The postscript file and more information are available at http://info.tuwien.ac.at/e142/, http://nova.elte.hu/~csoto and http://www.MPA-Garching.MPG.DE/~schlattl