New measurement of the ³He(α,γ)⁷Be cross section at medium energies

September 2012 • 2012PhRvC..86c2801C

Authors • Carmona-Gallardo, M. • Nara Singh, B. S. • Borge, M. J. G. • Briz, J. A. • Cubero, M. • Fulton, B. R. • Fynbo, H. • Gordillo, N. • Hass, M. • Haquin, G. • Maira, A. • Nácher, E. • Nir-El, Y. • Kumar, V. • McGrath, J. • Muñoz-Martín, A. • Perea, A. • Pesudo, V. • Ribeiro, G. • Sánchez del Rio, J. • Tengblad, O. • Yaniv, R. • Yungreis, Z.

Abstract • We report on a new cross-section measurement for the ³He(α, γ)⁷Be reaction at three medium energies of E_c.m. between 1 and 3 MeV. The interest stems from the significant role played by the reaction in calculating an accurate solar neutrino flux and the primordial ⁷Li abundance. The energy dependence of the astrophysical S₃₄ factor observed in the present work, especially above 1 MeV, highlights the need to constrain theories in order to obtain a precise extrapolated value for S₃₄(0). In this context, a comparison with the recent theoretical work in a fully microscopic fermionic molecular dynamics approach and a few other representative calculations emphasize the need for further experimental as well as theoretical work to resolve the existing conflicts.

Links

• ELECTR http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.86.032801