The cross sections of the astrophysically relevant 85$Rb(p,n)85Srg,m reaction have been measured between Ec.m. = 2.16 and 3.96 MeV. The cross sections have been derived by measuring the gamma radiation following the beta decay of the reaction products. A comparison with the predictions of Hauser-Feshbach calculations using the NON-SMOKER code confirms a recently derived modification of the global optical proton potential.
It is shown that a Coulomb suppression of the stellar enhancement factor occurs in many endothermic reactions at and far from stability. Contrary to common assumptions, reaction measurements for astrophysics with minimal impact of stellar enhancement should be preferably performed for those reactions instead of their reverses, despite of their negative reaction Q-value. As a demonstration, the cross section of the astrophysically relevant 85Rb(p,n)85Sr reaction has been measured by activation between 2.16<=E_{c.m.}<= 3.96 MeV and the astrophysical reaction rates at p-process temperatures for (p,n) as well as (n,p) are directly inferred from the data. Additionally, our results confirm a previously derived modification of a global optical proton potential. The presented arguments are also relevant for other alpha- and proton-induced reactions in the p-, rp-, and nu-p-processes.
The cross sections of the 70Ge(p,gamma)71As and 76Ge(p,n)76As reactions have been measured with the activation method in the Gamow window for the astrophysical p process. The experiments were carried out at the Van de Graaff and cyclotron accelerators of ATOMKI. The cross sections have been derived by measuring the decay gamma-radiation of the reaction products. The results are compared to the predictions of Hauser-Feshbach statistical model calculations using the code NON-SMOKER. Good agreement between theoretical and experimental S factors is found. Based on the new data, modifications of the optical potential used for low-energy protons are discussed.
A measurement of the pp --> p p eta reaction at the excess energy of Q = 15.5 +- 0.4 MeV has been carried out at the internal beam facility COSY-11 with an integrated luminosity of 811 nb^-1 The number of ~24000 identified events permits a precise determination of total (2.32 +- 0.05 +- 0.35 mu b) and differential cross sections. Preliminary investigations show that the angular distribution of the eta meson in the center-of-mass system is isotropic. A qualitative analysis of the Dalitz-plot distribution is presented.
The structure of $^{35}$P was studied with a one-proton knockout reaction at88~MeV/u from a $^{36}$S projectile beam at NSCL. The $gamma$ rays from thedepopulation of excited states in $^{35}$P were detected with GRETINA, whilethe $^{35}$P nuclei were identified event-by-event in the focal plane of theS800 spectrograph. The level scheme of $^{35}$P was deduced up to 7.5 MeV using$gamma-gamma$ coincidences. The observed levels were attributed to protonremovals from the $sd$-shell and also from the deeply-bound $p_{1/2}$ orbital.The orbital angular momentum of each state was derived from the comparisonbetween experimental and calculated shapes of individual ($gamma$-gated)parallel momentum distributions. Despite the use of different reactions andtheir associate models, spectroscopic factors, $C^2S$, derived from the$^{36}$S $(-1p)$ knockout reaction agree with those obtained earlier from$^{36}$S($d$, uc{3}{He}) transfer, if a reduction factor $R_s$, as deducedfrom inclusive one-nucleon removal cross sections, is applied to the knockout transitions.In addition to the expected proton-hole configurations, other states were observedwith individual cross sections of the order of 0.5~mb. Based on their shiftedparallel momentum distributions, their decay modes to negative parity states,their high excitation energy (around 4.7~MeV) and the fact that they were notobserved in the ($d$, uc{3}{He}) reaction, we propose that they may resultfrom a two-step mechanism or a nucleon-exchange reaction with subsequent neutronevaporation. Regardless of the mechanism, that could not yet be clarified, thesestates likely correspond to neutron core excitations in uc{35}{P}. Thisnewly-identified pathway, although weak, offers the possibility to selectivelypopulate certain intruder configurations that are otherwise hard to produceand identify.
In the model calculations of heavy element nucleosynthesis processes the nuclear reaction rates are taken from statistical model calculations which utilize various nuclear input parameters. It is found that in the case of reactions involving alpha particles the calculations bear a high uncertainty owing to the largely unknown low energy alpha-nucleus optical potential. Experiments are typically restricted to higher energies and therefore no direct astrophysical consequences can be drawn. In the present work a (p,alpha) reaction is used for the first time to study the alpha-nucleus optical potential. The measured 64Zn(p,alpha)61Cu cross section is uniquely sensitive to the alpha-nucleus potential and the measurement covers the whole astrophysically relevant energy range. By the comparison to model calculations, direct evidence is provided for the incorrectness of global optical potentials used in astrophysical models.