Single neutron transfer on 23Ne and its relevance forthepathway ofnucleosynthesis in astrophysical X-ray bursts
nucl-ex
/ Authors
G. Lotay, J. Henderson, W. N. Catford, F. A. Ali, J. Berean, N. Bernier, S. S. Bhattacharjee, M. Bowry, R. Caballero-Folch, B. Davids
and 25 more authors
T. E. Drake, A. B. Garnsworthy, F. GhaziMoradi, S. A. Gillespie, B. Greaves, G. Hackman, S. Hallam, D. Hymers, E. Kasanda, D. Levy, B. K. Luna, A. Mathews, Z. Meisel, M. Moukaddam, D. Muecher, B. Olaizola, N. A. Orr, H. P. Patel, M. M. Rajabali, Y. Saito, J. Smallcombe, M. Spencer, C. E. Svensson, K. Whitmore
/ Abstract
We present new experimental measurements of resonance strengths in the astrophysical 23Al(p, γ)24Si reaction, constraining the pathway of nucleosynthesis beyond 22Mg in X-ray burster scenarios. Specifically, we have performed the first measurement of the (d, p) reaction using a radioactive beam of 23Ne to explore levels in 24Ne, the mirror analog of 24Si. Four strong single-particle states were observed and corresponding neutron spectroscopic factors were extracted with a precision of {\sim}20{\%}. Using these spectroscopic factors, together with mirror state identifications, we have reduced uncertainties in the strength of the key {\ell} = 0 resonance at Er= 157 keV, in the astrophysical 23Al(p, γ) reaction, by a factor of 4. Our results show that the 22Mg(p, γ)23Al(p, γ) pathway dominates over the competing 22Mg(α, p) reaction in all but the most energetic X-ray burster events (T>0.85GK), significantly affecting energy production and the preservation of hydrogen fuel.