Studying X-ray burst nucleosynthesis in the laboratory

Abstract

Type I X-ray bursts are the most common explosions in the Galaxy; however, the nucleosynthesis that occurs during the thermonuclear runaway and explosion is poorly understood. In this proceedings we discuss current experimental efforts and techniques that are being used to study X-ray burst nucleosynthesis in the laboratory. Specifically, radioactive ion beam techniques that have recently been developed have allowed the study of some of the most important (α, p) reactions in X-ray bursts for the first time. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd