Study of fusion cross-section and astrophysical S-factor for p+15N and α+12C at sub-barrier energy

Abstract

Nuclear fusion reactions at low energies ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]eV to few KeV) are crucial for the primordial nucleosynthesis of light elements. Nuclear fusion reactions in this energy window can be understood fruitfully in terms of quantum mechanical tunneling through the mutual Coulomb barrier of interacting nuclei. In this work, we studied the fusion cross-section, [Formula: see text] and astrophysical S-factor in the selective resonant tunneling model (SRTM) approach for the [Formula: see text]N and [Formula: see text]C nuclear fusion reactions. We used space varying complex Gaussian type nuclear potential here. The quantum mechanical findings of the fusion cross-section, [Formula: see text] and S-factor are in excellent agreement with the experimentally observed results found in the literature. The improved value of astrophysical S-factors for light nuclei may give a more clear picture of the elemental abundance in primordial nucleosynthesis.