A new study of the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na reaction deep underground: Feasibility, setup, and first observation of the 186 keV resonance

Cavanna, F. and Depalo, R. and Menzel, M. -L. and Aliotta, M. and Anders, M. and Bemmerer, D. and Broggini, C. and Bruno, C. G. and Caciolli, A. and Corvisiero, P. and Davinson, T. and di, Leva A. and Elekes, Zoltán and Ferraro, F. and Formicola, A. and Fülöp, Zsolt and Gervino, G. and Guglielmetti, A. and Gustavino, C. and Gyürky, György and Imbriani, G. and Junker, M. and Menegazzo, R. and Prati, P. and Alvarez, C. Rossi and Scott, D. A. and Somorjai, Endre and Straniero, O. and Strieder, F. and Szücs, Tamás (2014) A new study of the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na reaction deep underground: Feasibility, setup, and first observation of the 186 keV resonance. EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL A: HADRONS AND NUCLEI, 50 (11). ISSN 1434-6001

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Abstract

The 22Ne(p,γ)23Na reaction takes part in the neon-sodium cycle of hydrogen burning. This cycle is active in asymptotic giant branch stars as well as in novae and contributes to the nucleosythesis of neon and sodium isotopes. In order to reduce the uncertainties in the predicted nucleosynthesis yields, new experimental efforts to measure the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na cross section directly at the astrophysically rele- vant energies are needed. In the present work, a feasibility study for a 22Ne(p,γ)23Na experiment at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) 400 kV accelerator deep underground in the Gran Sasso laboratory, Italy, is reported. The ion beam induced γ-ray background has been studied. The feasibility study led to the first observation of the Ep = 186 keV resonance in a direct experiment. An experimental lower limit of 0.12 × 10−6 eV has been obtained for the resonance strength. Informed by the feasibility study, a dedicated experimental setup for the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na experiment has been developed. The new setup has been characterized by a study of the temperature and pressure profiles. The beam heating effect that reduces the effective neon gas density due to the heating by the incident proton beam has been studied using the resonance scan technique, and the size of this effect has been determined for a neon gas target.

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