No abstract

No abstract

We review and analyze the available information on the nuclear-fusion cross sections that are most important for solar energy generation and solar neutrino production. We provide best values for the low-energy cross-section factors and, wherever possible, estimates of the uncertainties. We also describe the most important experiments and calculations that are required in order to improve our knowledge of solar fusion rates. [S0034-6861(98)00704-1]

The effects of electron screening on the low-energy cross sections of nuclear fusion reactions of astrophysical interest have been studied within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation using a simplified model. These studies indicate that a significant enhancement of the cross sections can occur already at beam energies, which are about a factor 100 higher than the electron binding energies. Cross sections near such energies can now be measured, in some cases, and several examples are discussed. For an understanding of the low-energy data as well as for a reliable extrapolation of the cross sections (for bare nuclei) to lower energies, the effects of electron screening must be well understood.

We report on a new measurement of the 14N(p,γ)15O capture cross section at Ep=140 to 400 keV using the 400 kV LUNA accelerator facility at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). The uncertainties have been reduced with respect to previous measurements and their analysis. We have analyzed the data using the R-matrix method and we find that the ground state transition accounts for about 15% of the total S-factor. The main contribution to the S-factor is given by the transition to the 6.79 MeV state. We find a total S(0)=1.7+/-0.2 keVb, in agreement with recent extrapolations. The result has important consequences for the solar neutrino spectrum as well as for the age of globular clusters

Abstract. The astrophysical S(E) factor of14 N(p, γ) 15 O has been measured for effective center-of-mass energies between E ef f = 119 and 367 keV at the LUNA facility using TiN solid targets and Ge detectors. The data are in good agreement with previous and recent work at overlapping energies. R-matrix analysis reveals that due to the complex level structure of 15 O the extrapolated S(0) value is model dependent and calls for additional experimental efforts to reduce the present uncertainty in S(0) to a level of a few percent as required by astrophysical calculations. .KvX -and γ ray spectroscopy -97.10.CvStellar structure and evolution PACS

No abstract

It is in the nature of astrophysics that many of the processes and objects one tries to understand are physically inaccessible. Thus, it is important that those aspects that can be studied in the laboratory be rather well understood. One such aspect are the nuclear fusion reactions, which are at the heart of nuclear astrophysics. They influence sensitively the nucleosynthesis of the elements in the earliest stages of the universe and in all the objects formed thereafter, and control the associated energy generation, neutrino luminosity, and evolution of stars. We review a new experimental approach for the study of nuclear fusion reactions based on an underground accelerator laboratory, named LUNA.