Neutron capture cross section of unstable 63Ni: implications for stellar nucleosynthesis

Abstract

The ${}^{63}$Ni($n,\gamma$) cross section has been measured for the first time at the neutron time-of-flight facility n\_TOF at CERN from thermal neutron energies up to 200 keV. In total, capture kernels of 12 (new) resonances were determined. Maxwellian Averaged Cross Sections were calculated for thermal energies from kT = 5 keV to 100 keV with uncertainties around 20%. Stellar model calculations for a 25 M${}_{\odot }$ star show that the new data have a significant effect on the $s$-process production of ${}^{63}$Cu, ${}^{64}$Ni, and ${}^{64}$Zn in massive stars, allowing stronger constraints on the Cu yields from explosive nucleosynthesis in the subsequent supernova.

References in corpus (1)

• Dependence of S-Process Nucleosynthesis in Massive Stars on Triple-Alpha and 12C(a,g)16O Reaction Rate Uncertainties

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Neutron Reactions in Astrophysics
• ${}^{62}$Ni($n,\gamma$) and ${}^{63}$Ni($n,\gamma$) cross sections measured at n_TOF/CERN
• Origin of large meteoritic SiC stardust grains in metal-rich AGB stars
• The Status and Future of Direct Nuclear Reaction Measurements for Stellar Burning
• Measurement of the ${}^{159}$Tb(n, $\gamma$) cross section at the CSNS Back-n facility
• The s process in massive stars, a benchmark for neutron capture reaction rates
• Experimental nuclear astrophysics in Italy