Bemmerer D, Confortola F, Costantini H, Formicola A, Gyürky G, Bonetti R, Broggini C, Corvisiero P, Elekes Z, Fülöp Z, Gervino G, Guglielmetti A, Gustavino C, Imbriani G, Junker M, Laubenstein M, Lemut A, Limata B, Lozza V, Marta M, Menegazzo R, Prati P, Roca V, Rolfs C, Alvarez CR, Somorjai E, Straniero O, Strieder F, Terrasi F, Trautvetter HP. Activation measurement of the 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be cross section at low energy.
Phys Rev Lett 2006;
97:122502. [PMID:
17025958 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.97.122502]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2006] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
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.
Collapse