2017 JINA-CEE Frontiers in Nuclear Astrophysics

Studying the 7-Be(α, γ)11-C reaction rate with DRAGON and the nuclear physics uncertainties of the νp-process

8 Feb 2017, 16:00

15m

Radisson Hotel Lansing

Talk [Main Conference] Contributed talk Session 8

Speaker

Mr Athanasios Psaltis (McMaster University)

Description

The origin of the about 35 neutron-deficient stable isotopes with mass numbers A >74, known as the *p*-nuclei, has been a longstanding puzzle in Nuclear Astrophysics. The νp-process is a candidate for the production of the light *p*-nuclei, but it presents high sensitivity to both supernova dynamics and nuclear physics [1,2]. It has been recently shown that the breakout from pp-chains through the ⁷Be(α,γ)¹¹C reaction can significantly influence the production of p-nuclei in the 90<A<110 region [2]. Nevertheless, this reaction has not been studied well yet in the relevant temperature range (T<sub>9=1-3). To that end, the first study of important resonances of ⁷Be(α,γ)¹¹C reaction with unknown strengths using DRAGON [3] was recently proposed and approved by TRIUMF. The reaction will be studied in inverse kinematics using a radioactive ⁷Be (t_1/2=53.24 d) beam provided by ISAC-I and three resonances above the alpha-threshold - E_th= 7543.62 keV - are planned to be measured. Moreover, simulation results from the study of the transmission of the recoils and the efficiency of the BGO array of DRAGON with GEANT3 will be presented. **References** [1] C. Frohlich *et al.*, Phys. Rev. Lett. **96**, 142502 (2006). [2] S. Wanajo, H.-T. Janka and S. Kubono, Astrophys. J. **729**, 46 (2011). [3] D.A. Hutcheon *et al.*, Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A **498**, 190 (2003).