Nuclear astrophysics experiments for explosive hydrogen burning

Abstract

Explosive phenomena, such as X-ray bursts and novae, are generated by nuclear fusion processes known as the rapid proton capture (rp) process, which are responsible for creating elements up to and beyond the iron isotopes. There are some key nuclear reactions, such as the 15O(αγ)19Ne and 14O(α,ρ)17F reactions, for understanding the mechanism of these hydrogen burnings, especially when the breakout from the HCNO cycle to the rp-process occurs. Measuring these two reaction rates and many other reactions in the rp-process path requires radioactive ion beams. Our experiments with radioactive 14O and 15O beams and some future considerations with radioactive ion (RI) beams are described.