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Title: The fluorine destruction in stars: First experimental study of the {sup 19}F(p,{alpha}){sup 16}O reaction at astrophysical energies

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4763456· OSTI ID:22075792

The {sup 19}F(p,{alpha}){sup 16}O reaction is an important fluorine destruction channel in the proton-rich outer layers of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and it might also play a role in hydrogendeficient post-AGB star nucleosynthesis. So far, available direct measurements do not reach the energy region of astrophysical interest (E{sub cm}{approx} 300 keV), because of the hindrance effect of the Coulomb barrier. The Trojan Horse (TH) method was thus used to access this energy region, by extracting the quasi-free contribution to the {sup 2}H({sup 19}F,{alpha}{sup 16}O)n reaction. The TH measurement of the {alpha}{sub 0} channel, which is the dominant one at such energies, shows the presence of resonant structures not observed before that cause an increase of the reaction rate at astrophysical temperatures up to a factor of 1.7, with potential important consequences for stellar nucleosynthesis.

OSTI ID:
22075792
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1484, Issue 1; Conference: Conference on origin of matter and evolution of galaxies 2011, Wako (Japan), 14-17 Nov 2011; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English