2008/07/30 by M. Marta, A. Formicola, Gy. Gyurky +31
Physics and Astronomy · #Neutrino Physics Research #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Nuclear physics research studies #astro-ph #nucl-ex
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.78.022802
published as Phys.Rev.C78:022802,2008 · Phys. Rev. C, rapid comm., accepted
arxiv created 2008/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The rate of the hydrogen-burning carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle is controlled by the slowest process, 14N(p,\ensuremathγ)15O, which proceeds by capture to the ground and several excited states in 15O. Previous extrapolations for the ground state contribution disagreed by a factor 2, corresponding to 15% uncertainty in the total astrophysical S factor. At the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) 400 kV accelerator placed deep underground in the Gran Sasso facility in Italy, a new experiment on ground state capture has been carried out at 317.8, 334.4, and 353.3 keV center-of-mass energy. Systematic corrections have been reduced considerably with respect to previous studies by using a Clover detector and by adopting a relative analysis. The previous discrepancy has been resolved, and ground state capture no longer dominates the uncertainty of the total S factor.