Remeasuring the resonance strength of the <sup>21</sup>Ne(p,γ)<sup>22</sup>Na reaction at DRAGON
ORAL
Abstract
Novae are explosive astrophysical events which provide a unique environment for nucleosynthesis. Oxygen-Neon(O-Ne) novae, which are caused by the thermonuclear runaway of accreted material on the surface of a white dwarf in a close binary system, can reach peak temperatures of 0.1-0.4 GK. These novae are particularly important for the production of intermediate mass nuclides through cycles such as the Ne-Na cycle. The 21Ne(p,γ)22Na reaction of the Ne-Na cycle is of great interest in studying these events due to the beta decay and subsequent release of a characteristic gamma ray at 1.275 MeV and the relatively long half-life of 2.6 years. To date, no gammas from the 22Na decay have been detected and this remains a problem in understanding novae nucleosynthesis. The 21Ne(p,γ)22Na reaction was measured at Ecm =258.6 keV in inverse kinematics at the DRAGON recoil separator as a part of the commissioning measurements and yielded a resonance strength over twice the literature value previously measured by Görres et al.. The resonance strength was then remeasured in order to resolve this discrepancy. Preliminary results and analysis of the remeasurement will be discussed.
*The research presented was funded through the U.S. Department of Energy grant DE-FG02-93ER40789.
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Presenters
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Matthew Lovely
- Colorado Sch of Mines
- Colorado School of Mines