arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R. Kunz.
The half-life of the beta-decay of 198Au has been measured for room temperature and 12 K. The resulting values of T(RT) = 2.684 +- 0.004 d and T(12 K) = 2.687 +- 0.005 d agree well within statistical uncertainties. An evidence for a temperature dependence of the half-life was not observed.
The rate of the hydrogen-burning carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle is controlled by the slowest process, 14N(p,gamma)15O, which proceeds by capture to the ground and several excited states in 15O. Previous extrapolations for the ground state contribution disagreed by a factor 2, corresponding to 15% uncertainty in the total astrophysical S-factor. At the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) 400 kV accelerator placed deep underground in the Gran Sasso facility in Italy, a new experiment on ground state capture has been carried out at 317.8, 334.4, and 353.3 keV center-of-mass energy. Systematic corrections have been reduced considerably with respect to previous studies by using a Clover detector and by adopting a relative analysis. The previous discrepancy has been resolved, and ground state capture no longer dominates the uncertainty of the total S-factor.
We report on a new lifetime measurement of the E_x=6792 keV state in 15O via the Doppler-shift attenuation method at the E=259 keV resonance in the reaction 14N(p,g)15O. This subthreshold state is of particular importance for the determination of the ground state astrophysical S factor of 14N(p,g)15O at stellar energies. The measurement technique has been significantly improved compared with previous work. The conclusion of a finite lifetime drawn there cannot be confirmed with the present data. In addition, the lifetime of the two states at E_x=5181 and 6172 keV have been measured with the same technique in order to verify the experimental method. We observe an attenuation factor F(tau)>0.98 for the E_x =6172 and 6792 keV states, respectively, corresponding to tau<0.77 fs. The attenuation factor for the E_x=5181 keV state results in F(tau)=0.78+/-0.02 corresponding to tau=8.4+/-1.0 fs in excellent agreement with literature.
The total cross section of 12C(alpha,gamma)16O was measured for the first time by a direct and ungated detection of the 16O recoils. This measurement in inverse kinematics using the recoil mass separator ERNA in combination with a windowless He gas target allowed to collect data with high precision in the energy range E=1.9 to 4.9 MeV. The data represent new information for the determination of the astrophysical S(E) factor.