Speaker
Description
The $^{19}$F + p reactions play a key role in two main scenarios: on one hand the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements (A $\le$ 40) via CNO break out, as observed in ultra-iron-poor stars. On the other hand, a precise knowledge of the $^{19}$F + p reaction rates, which represent the main destruction channels of fluorine, is crucial to understand its puzzling galactic origin and abundance. Among these processes, the detection of the $^{19}$F(p,$\gamma$)$^{20}$Ne reaction has long been elusive, owing to inevitable background from, $\gamma$-ray emissions associated with the (p,$\alpha_{2,3,4}$) channels. This limitation became apparent in early measurements, whose validity has been called into question by two late studies. More recently, an underground measurement at JUNA reported resonance strength and branching ratios for the resonances at $E_\mathrm{cm}$ = 323 keV and
$E_\mathrm{cm}$ = 225 keV (this latter observed for the first time), leading to a reaction rate up to a factor 7 larger than literature.
In the present talk I will report on a new experimental campaign performed at LUNA, located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy) owing to a reduction of cosmic-ray background by several orders of magnitude. The high sensitivity setup exploited, measurement details and techniques and preliminary results for both $(p,\alpha\gamma)$ and $(p,\gamma)$ channels will be presented in the talk.
Finally, LUNA collaboration propose a series of experiments to tackle the $^{19}$F(p,$\alpha$)$^{16}$O reaction channels, for which poor data are available below 500 keV, exploiting a new detection system to detect simultaneously charged particles and $\gamma$ rays and a novel approach for the investigation of the (p,$\alpha_1$) reaction.
| Category | Experiment |
|---|