2023/11/27 by Vyfers, E. C., Pesudo, V., Triambak, S. +13
#FOS: Physical sciences #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.15935
Background: The nucleosynthesis of several proton-rich nuclei is determined by radiative proton-capture reactions on unstable nuclei in nova explosions. One such reaction is 23\rm Mg(p,γ)24\rm Al, which links the NeNa and MgAl cycles in oxygen-neon (ONe) novae. Purpose: To extract 23\rm Mg(p,γ) resonance strengths from a study of proton-unbound states in 24\rm Al, produced via the 24Mg(3He,t) reaction. Methods: A beam of 3 \rm He2+ ions at 50.7 MeV was used to produce the states of interest in 24Al. Proton-triton angular correlations were measured with a K=600 QDD magnetic spectrometer and a silicon detector array, located at iThemba LABS, South Africa. Results: We measured the excitation energies of the four lowest proton-unbound states in 24Al and place lower-limits on Γp/Γ values for these four states. Together with shell-model calculations of partial gamma widths, the experimental data are also used to determine resonance strengths for the three lowest 23\rm Mg(p,γ)24\rm Al resonances. Conclusions: The energy of the dominant first 23\rm Mg(p,γ) resonance is determined to be Er = 478 ± 4 keV, with a resonance strength ωγ= 19 ± 9 meV.