Direct measurement of the ¹⁹F(p, αγ)¹⁶O reaction in JUNA

¹ Key Laboratory of Beam Technology and Material Modification of Ministry of Education, College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
² The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 USA
³ Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics, Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), Bucharest-Măgurele 077125, Romania
⁴ Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
⁵ China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102413, China
⁶ College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
⁷ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China
⁸ Yalong River Hydropower Development Company, Chengdu 610051, China
⁹ Beijing Radiation Center, Beijing 100875, China

^* e-mail: hejianjun@bnu.edu.cn

Published online: 24 February 2022

Abstract

The ¹⁹F(p, αγ)¹⁶O reaction is of crucial importance for Galactic ¹⁹F abundances and CNO cycle loss in first generation Population III stars. Due to its extremely small cross sections, the ¹⁹F(p, αγ)¹⁶O reaction has not been measured in the low energy part of the Gamow window(70-200 keV). As a day-one campaign, the experiment was performed under the extremely low cosmicray-induced background environment of the China JinPing Underground Laboratory(CJPL), one of the deepest underground laboratories in the world. The γ-ray yields were measured over E_c.m. =72.4–344 keV, covering the full Gamow window for the first time. The direct experimental data will help people to expound the fluorine over-abundances, energy generation, as well as heavy-element nuclosynthesis scenario in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, with the astrophysical model on the firm ground.