No Arabic abstract
We summarize and critically evaluate the available data on nuclear fusion cross sections important to energy generation in the Sun and other hydrogen-burning stars and to solar neutrino production. Recommended values and uncertainties are provided for key cross sections, and a recommended spectrum is given for 8B solar neutrinos. We also discuss opportunities for further increasing the precision of key rates, including new facilities, new experimental techniques, and improvements in theory. This review, which summarizes the conclusions of a workshop held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, in January 2009, is intended as a 10-year update and supplement to Reviews of Modern Physics 70 (1998) 1265.
The eta-prime meson production in the reaction pp-->pp eta-prime has been studied at excess energies of Q = 26.5, 32.5 and 46.6 MeV using the internal beam facility COSY-11 at the cooler synchrotron COSY. The total cross sections as well as one angular distribution for the highest Q-value are presented. The excitation function of the near threshold data can be described by a pure s-wave phase space distribution with the inclusion of the proton-proton final state interaction and Coulomb effects. The obtained angular distribution of the eta-prime mesons is also consistent with pure s-wave production.
Measurement of fusion cross sections for the 6,7Li + 24Mg reactions by the characteristic gamma-ray method has been done at energies from below to well above the respective Coulomb barriers. The fusion cross sections obtained from these gamma-ray cross sections for the two systems are found to agree well with the total reaction cross sections at low energies. The decrease of fusion cross sections with increase of energy is consistent with the fact that other channels, in particular breakup open up with increase of bombarding energy. This shows that there is neither inhibition nor enhancement of fusion cross sections for these systems at above or below the barrier. The critical angular momenta (lcr) deduced from the fusion cross sections are found to have an energy dependence similar to other Li - induced reactions.
Neutrinos emitted in the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen (CNO) fusion cycle in the Sun are a sub-dominant, yet crucial component of solar neutrinos whose flux has not been measured yet. The Borexino experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy) has a unique opportunity to detect them directly thanks to the detectors radiopurity and the precise understanding of the detector backgrounds. We discuss the sensitivity of Borexino to CNO neutrinos, which is based on the strategies we adopted to constrain the rates of the two most relevant background sources, pep neutrinos from the solar pp-chain and Bi-210 beta decays originating in the intrinsic contamination of the liquid scintillator with Pb-210. Assuming the CNO flux predicted by the high-metallicity Standard Solar Model and an exposure of 1000 daysx71.3 t, Borexino has a median sensitivity to CNO neutrino higher than 3 sigma. With the same hypothesis the expected experimental uncertainty on the CNO neutrino flux is 23%, provided the uncertainty on the independent estimate of the Bi-210 interaction rate is 1.5 cpd/100t. Finally, we evaluated the expected uncertainty of the C and N abundances and the expected discrimination significance between the high and low metallicity Standard Solar Models (HZ and LZ) with future more precise measurement of the CNO solar neutrino flux.
We investigate the reaction path followed by Heavy Ion Collisions with exotic nuclear beams at low energies. We will focus on the interplay between reaction mechanisms, fusion vs. break-up (fast-fission, deep-inelastic), that in exotic systems is expected to be influenced by the symmetry energy term at densities around the normal value. The evolution of the system is described by a Stochastic Mean Field transport equation (SMF), where two parametrizations for the density dependence of symmetry energy (Asysoft and Asystiff) are implemented, allowing one to explore the sensitivity of the results to this ingredient of the nuclear interaction. The method described here, based on the event by event evolution of phase space quadrupole collective modes will nicely allow to extract the fusion probability at relatively early times, when the transport results are reliable. Fusion probabilities for reactions induced by 132Sn on 64,58Ni targets at 10 AMeV are evaluated. We obtain larger fusion cross sections for the more n-rich composite system, and, for a given reaction, in the Asysoft choice. Finally a collective charge equilibration mechanism (the Dynamical Dipole) is revealed in both fusion and break-up events, depending on the stiffness of the symmetry term just below saturation.
We present the most recent results from the two currently running solar neutrino experiments, Borexino at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy and SuperK at Kamioka mine in Japan. SuperK has released the most precise yet measurement of the 8B solar neutrino interaction rate, with a precision better than 2%, consistent with a constant solar neutrino emission over more than a decade. Borexino has released refined measurements of all neutrinos produced in the pp fusion chain. For the first time, one single detector has measured the entire range of solar neutrinos at once. These new data weakly favor a high-metallicity Sun. Prospects for measuring CNO solar neutrinos with Borexino are discussed, and a brief outlook on the field provided.