%0 Journal Article
%T Search for Na-22 in novae supported by a novel method for measuring femtosecond nuclear lifetimes
%A Fougeres, C. et al
%A Domingo-Pardo, C.
%J Nature Communications
%D 2023
%V 14
%N 1
%I Nature Portfolio
%G English
%F Fougeres+Domingo-Pardo2023
%O WOS:001063751200012
%O exported from refbase (https://references.ific.uv.es/refbase/show.php?record=5671), last updated on Fri, 29 Sep 2023 09:11:42 +0000
%X 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.
%R 10.1038/s41467-023-40121-3
%U https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.06302
%U https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40121-3
%P 4536-7pp