학술논문

Understanding the cosmic abundance of 22Na: Lifetime measurements in 23Mg.
Document Type
Article
Source
EPJ Web of Conferences. 3/22/2023, Vol. 279, p1-7. 7p.
Subject
*NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
*NEUTRON capture
*NUCLEAR physics
*NUCLEAR activation analysis
*NUCLEAR reactions
Language
ISSN
2101-6275
Abstract
Simulations of explosive nucleosynthesis in novae predict the production of 22Na, a key astronomical observable to constrain nova models. Its gamma-ray line at 1.275 MeV has not yet been observed by the gamma-ray space telescopes. The 20Ne/22Ne ratio in presolar grains, a possible tool to identify nova grains, also depends on 22Na produced. Uncertainties on its yield in classical novae currently originate from the rate of the 22Na(p, γ)23Mg reaction. At peak novae temperatures, this reaction is dominated by a resonance at ER=0.204 MeV, corresponding to the Ex=7.785 MeV excited state in 23Mg. The resonance strengths measured so far disagree by one order of magnitude. An experiment has been performed at GANIL to measure the lifetime and the proton branching ratio of this key state, with a femtosecond resolution for the former. The reactions populating states in 23Mg have been studied with a high resolution detection set-up, i.e. the particle VAMOS, SPIDER and gamma tracking AGATA spectrometers, allowing the measurements of lifetimes and proton branchings. We present here a comparison between experimental results and shell-model calculations, that allowed us to assign the spin and parity of the key state. Rather small values obtained for reduced M1 matrix elements, M(M1) ≲ 0.5 µN, and proton spectroscopic factors, C2Sp<10−2, seem to be beyond the accuracy of the shell model. With the reevaluated 22Na(p, γ)23Mg rate, the 22Na detectability limit and its observation frequency from novae are found promising for the future space telescopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]