Fusion reactions induced by radioactive beams: the ¹⁸F(p,α)¹⁵O case

¹ INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
² Cyclotron Institute, Texas A& M University, College Station, TX, USA
³ IFIN-HH, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
⁴ Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy
⁶ KORE University, Enna, Italy

^* e-mail: rgpizzone@lns.infn.it

Published online: 22 November 2017

Abstract

Gamma ray astronomy has made big strides in the last decades paving the way to a better understanding of explosive nucleosynthesis. In particular, crucial information on novae nucleosynthesis is linked to the abundance of the ¹⁸F isotope, which might be detected in explosive environments. Therefore, the reaction network producing and destroying this radioactive isotope has been extensively studied in the last years. Among those reactions, the ¹⁸F(p,α)¹⁵O cross section has been measured by means of several dedicated experiments, both using direct and indirect methods. The presence of resonances in the energy region of astrophysical interest has been reported by many authors. In the present work a report on a recent experiment performed via the Trojan Horse Method (THM) at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute is presented and the results are given and compared with the ones known in the literature, both direct and indirect. Data arising from THM measurements are then averaged and the reaction rate calculated in the novae energy range. Hints on future astrophysical applications will also be given.