The study of the 20Ne(p,γ)21Na reaction at LUNA

Abstract

The NeNa and MgAl cycles have been the subject of much experimental activity during the last decade because of their relevance to the synthesis of Ne, Na, and Mg isotopes during the H burning in several astrophysical scenarios. Key reactions in these cycles are also believed to be the main agents of the observed anti-correlations in O-Na and Al-Mg abundances exhibited by the stars of Galactic globular clusters. The 20Ne(p,γ)21Na is the first reaction and the bottleneck of the NeNa cycle: having the slowest reaction rate, it controls the speed of the entire cycle. In order to better constrain the overall astrophysical reaction rate of this important reaction, the LUNA collaboration has started a new experimental effort to study the 366 keV resonance and to improve the knowledge of the cross section at proton energies below 400 keV. This contribution describes the experimental setup and preliminary results.