New precision measurement of the 3He(4He,gamma) 7Be cross section

3He(α,γ)7Be cross section measurement around 7Be known energy levels

The 3He(α,γ)7Be reaction plays an important role in two astrophysical scenarios. It is a key reaction in lithium production during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and one of the central reaction in the p-p chain in stars. In the case of the former event, the Gamow energy of the reaction is around 0.2 MeV, while in the case of the p-p chain in the Sun, an order of magnitude less, around 0.023 MeV. Experimental investigation at such low energies is very difficult, if possible at all, thus low energy extrapolation inevitable to predict the reaction rate at these energies. The extrapolation and its uncertainty are influenced by the precision and covered energy range of the data used. There are many precision datasets between Ec.m. = 0.3–3.1 MeV, but only one below and one above. At higher energies known levels of 7Be exist, which motivates the study of that energy range. Therefore, we performed investigations in the energy range of Ec.m. = 4.3–8.3 MeV, where the radiative cross section has not been studied so far. For the cross section determination, the activation technique was used utilising a thin-windowed gas cell and the MGC-20 cyclotron of ATOMKI.

The impact of recent advances in laboratory astrophysics on our understanding of the cosmos

An emerging theme in modern astrophysics is the connection between astronomical observations and the underlying physical phenomena that drive our cosmos. Both the mechanisms responsible for the observed astrophysical phenomena and the tools used to probe such phenomena-the radiation and particle spectra we observe-have their roots in atomic, molecular, condensed matter, plasma, nuclear and particle physics. Chemistry is implicitly included in both molecular and condensed matter physics. This connection is the theme of the present report, which provides a broad, though non-exhaustive, overview of progress in our understanding of the cosmos resulting from recent theoretical and experimental advances in what is commonly called laboratory astrophysics. This work, carried out by a diverse community of laboratory astrophysicists, is increasingly important as astrophysics transitions into an era of precise measurement and high fidelity modeling.

Microscopic calculation of the 3He(α,γ)7Be and 3H(α,γ)7Li capture cross sections using realistic interactions

The radiative capture cross sections for the 3He(α,γ)7Be and 3H(α,γ)7Li reactions are calculated in the fully microscopic fermionic molecular dynamics approach using a realistic effective interaction that reproduces the nucleon-nucleon scattering data. At large distances bound and scattering states are described by antisymmetrized products of 4He and 3He/3H ground states. At short distances the many-body Hilbert space is extended with additional many-body wave functions needed to represent polarized clusters and shell-model-like configurations. Properties of the bound states are described well, as are the scattering phase shifts. The calculated S factor for the 3He(α,γ)7Be reaction agrees very well with recent experimental data in both absolute normalization and energy dependence. In the case of the 3H(α,γ)7Li reaction the calculated S factor is larger than available experimental data by about 15%.

Stellar and primordial nucleosynthesis of 7Be: measurement of 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be

The 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be reaction presently represents the largest nuclear uncertainty in the predicted solar neutrino flux and has important implications on the big bang nucleosynthesis, i.e., the production of primordial 7Li. We present here the results of an experiment using the recoil separator ERNA (European Recoil separator for Nuclear Astrophysics) to detect directly the 7Be ejectiles. In addition, off-beam activation and coincidence gamma-ray measurements were performed at selected energies. At energies above 1 MeV a large discrepancy compared to previous results is observed both in the absolute value and in the energy dependence of the cross section. Based on the available data and models, a robust estimate of the cross section at the astrophysical relevant energies is proposed.

Activation measurement of the 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be cross section at low energy

The nuclear physics input from the 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be cross section is a major uncertainty in the fluxes of 7Be and 8B neutrinos from the Sun predicted by solar models and in the 7Li abundance obtained in big-bang nucleosynthesis calculations. The present work reports on a new precision experiment using the activation technique at energies directly relevant to big-bang nucleosynthesis. Previously such low energies had been reached experimentally only by the prompt-gamma technique and with inferior precision. Using a windowless gas target, high beam intensity, and low background gamma-counting facilities, the 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be cross section has been determined at 127, 148, and 169 keV center-of-mass energy with a total uncertainty of 4%. The sources of systematic uncertainty are discussed in detail. The present data can be used in big-bang nucleosynthesis calculations and to constrain the extrapolation of the 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be astrophysical S factor to solar energies.