Speaker
Description
Carbon burning is a crucial stage of stellar evolution, determining whether stars evolve toward neutron stars, black holes, or CO white dwarfs. These outcomes depend strongly on the $^{12}C+^{12}C$ reaction rate, which is still uncertain at astrophysical energies.
This reaction mainly proceeds through the $^{12}C(^{12}C,\alpha)^{20}Ne$ and $^{12}C(^{12}C,p)^{23}Na$ channels. While it has been studied over a wide energy range, direct measurements only reach 2.1 MeV, above the astrophysical region. Indirect methods extend to lower energies, but with significant normalization uncertainties, making new direct measurements essential.
A direct study is now being carried out by the LUNA collaboration at LNGS using high-intensity carbon beams and a low-background $\gamma$-detection setup based on a 150% HPGe detector surrounded by NaI scintillators. This configuration combines high efficiency, excellent resolution, and strong background suppression, providing a sensitivity much higher than previous direct experiments.
Besides improving the measurement of the $^{12}C+^{12}C$ cross section, this setup will also allow the study of the level density and possible cluster structure of $^{24}Mg$ in the $E_{cm}=1.5–3.5$ MeV region, which may play an important role in the astrophysical reaction rate.
In this contribution, I will present the recent progress in setup development and installation, Geant4 simulations, HPGe detector characterization, and the first beam-on-target results for the direct study of the $^{12}C+^{12}C$ reaction.
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