1. Search for $^{22}$Na in novae supported by a novel method for measuring femtosecond nuclear lifetimes
- Author
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Fougères, C., Santos, F. de Oliveira, José, J., Michelagnoli, C., Clément, E., Kim, Y. H., Lemasson, A., Guimaraes, V., Barrientos, D., Bemmerer, D., Benzoni, G., Boston, A. J., Bottger, R., Boulay, F., Bracco, A., Celikovic, I., Cederwall, B., Ciemala, M., Delafosse, C., Domingo-Pardo, C., Dudouet, J., Eberth, J., Fulop, Z., Gonzalez, V., Goupil, J., Hess, H., Jungclaus, A., Kaskas, A., Korichi, A., Lenzi, S. M., Leoni, S., Li, H., Ljungvall, J., Lopez-Martens, A., Menegazzo, R., Mengoni, D., Million, B., Mrazek, J., Napoli, D. R., Navin, A., Nyberg, J., Podolyak, Zs., Pullia, A., Quintana, B., Ralet, D., Redon, N., Reiter, P., Rezynkina, K., Saillant, F., Salsac, M. D., Sanchez-Benitez, A. M., Sanchis, E., Senyigit, M., Siciliano, M., Smirnova, N. A., Sohler, D., Stanoiu, M., Theisen, Ch., Valiente-Dobon, J. J., Ujic, P., and Zielinska, M.
- Subjects
Nuclear Experiment ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
Classical novae are thermonuclear explosions in stellar binary systems, and important sources of $^{26}$Al and $^{22}$Na. While gamma rays from the decay of the former radioisotope have been observed throughout the Galaxy, $^{22}$Na remains untraceable. The half-life of $^{22}$Na (2.6 yr) would allow the observation of its 1.275 MeV gamma-ray line from a cosmic source. However, the prediction of such an observation requires good knowledge of the nuclear reactions involved in the production and destruction of this nucleus. The $^{22}$Na($p,\gamma$)$^{23}$Mg reaction remains the only source of large uncertainty about the amount of $^{22}$Na ejected. Its rate is dominated by a single resonance on the short-lived state at 7785.0(7) keV in $^{23}$Mg. In the present work, a combined analysis of particle-particle correlations and velocity-difference profiles is proposed to measure femtosecond nuclear lifetimes. The application of this novel method to the study of the $^{23}$Mg states, combining magnetic and highly-segmented tracking gamma-ray spectrometers, places strong limits on the amount of $^{22}$Na produced in novae, explains its non-observation to date in gamma rays (flux < 2.5x$10^{-4}$ ph/(cm$^2$s)), and constrains its detectability with future space-borne observatories., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 1 table
- Published
- 2022
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