| Abstract |
Classical novae are thermonuclear explosions in stellar binary systems, and important sources of Al-26 and Na-22. While ? rays from the decay of the former radioisotope have been observed throughout the Galaxy, Na-22 remains untraceable. Its half-life (2.6 yr) would allow the observation of its 1.275 MeV ?-ray line from a cosmic source. However, the prediction of such an observation requires good knowledge of its nucleosynthesis. The Na-22(p, ?)Mg-23 reaction remains the only source of large uncertainty about the amount of Na-22 ejected. Its rate is dominated by a single resonance on the short-lived state at 7785.0(7) keV in Mg-23. Here, we propose a combined analysis of particle-particle correlations and velocity-difference profiles to measure femtosecond nuclear lifetimes. The application of this method to the study of the Mg-23 states, places strong limits on the amount of Na-22 produced in novae and constrains its detectability with future space-borne observatories. The authors report a particle-particle correlation and velocity-difference profile method to measure nuclear lifetime. The results obtained for excited states of 23Mg are used to constrain the production of 22Na in the astrophysical novae explosions. |
| Address |
[Fougeres, Chloe; Santos, Francois de Oliveira; Michelagnoli, Caterina; Clement, Emmanuel; Kim, Yung Hee; Lemasson, Antoine; Boulay, Florent; Goupil, Johan; Li, Hongjie; Navin, Alahari; Ralet, Damien; Saillant, Frederic] Grand Accelerateur Natl Ions Lourds GANIL, CEA, IN2P3, DRF CNRS, Caen, France, Email: chloe.fougeres@gmail.com; |
