Measurement of the 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section in the burning energy region for X-ray bursts

Abstract

The 18Ne(a,p)21Na reaction provides one of the main HCNO-breakout routes into the rp-process in X-ray bursts. The 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section has been determined for the first time in the Gamow energy region for peak temperatures T=2GK by measuring its time-reversal reaction 21Na(p,a)18Ne in inverse kinematics. The astrophysical rate for ground-state to ground-state transitions was found to be a factor of 2 lower than Hauser-Feshbach theoretical predictions. Our reduced rate will affect the physical conditions under which breakout from the HCNO cycles occurs via the 18Ne(a,p)21Na reaction.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (2)

• Tables of Nuclear Cross Sections and Reaction Rates: an Addendum to the Paper "Astrophysical Reaction Rates from Statistical Model Calculations"
• X-ray binaries

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Nucleosynthesis in Type I X-ray Bursts
• Nuclear Physics of the Outer Layers of Accreting Neutron Stars
• The 18Ne(a,p)21Na breakout reaction in x-ray bursts: experimental determination of spin-parities for alpha resonances in 22Mg via resonant elastic scattering of 21Na+p
• Investigation of thermonuclear ${}^{18}$Ne($\alpha$,$p$)${}^{21}$Na rate via resonant elastic scattering of ${}^{21}$Na+$p$
• Thermonuclear reaction rate of ${}^{18}$Ne($\alpha$,$p$)${}^{21}$Na from Monte-Carlo calculations
• Examination and experimental constraints of the stellar reaction rate factor $N_A<\sigma v>$ of the ${}^{18}$Ne($\alpha$,$p$)${}^{21}$Na reaction at temperatures of X-Ray Bursts
• Measurement of the ${}^{18}$Ne($\alpha ,p$)${}^{21}$Na reaction with ANASEN at $E_{c.m.}=$ 2.5-4 MeV