*
Cococubed.com


12C(α,γ)16O Reaction Rate

Home

Astronomy research
  Software Infrastructure:
     MESA
     FLASH-X
     STARLIB
     MESA-Web
     starkiller-astro
     My instruments
  White dwarf pulsations:
     12C(α,γ) & overshooting
     Probe of 12C(α,γ)16O
     Impact of 22Ne
     Impact of ν cooling
     Variable white dwarfs
     MC reaction rates
     Micronovae
     Novae
  White dwarf supernova:
     Stable nickel production
     Remnant metallicities
     Colliding white dwarfs
     Merging white dwarfs
     Ignition conditions
     Metallicity effects
     Central density effects
     Detonation density
     Tracer particle burning
     Subsonic burning fronts
     Supersonic fronts
     W7 profiles
  Massive stars:
     Pop III with HST/JWST
     Rotating progenitors
     3D evolution to collapse
     MC reaction rates
     Pre-SN variations
  Massive star supernova:
     Yields of radionuclides
     26Al & 60Fe
     44Ti, 60Co & 56Ni
     SN 1987A light curve
     Constraints on Ni/Fe
     An r-process
     Effects of 12C +12C
  Neutron Stars and Black Holes:
     Black Hole spectrum
     Mass Gap with LVK
     Compact object IMF
     He burn neutron stars
  Neutrino Emission:
     Neutrino emission from stars
     Identifying the Pre-SN
     Neutrino HR diagram
     Pre-SN Beta Processes
     Pre-SN neutrinos
  Stars:
     Hypatia catalog
     SAGB stars
     Nugrid Yields I
     He shell convection
     BBFH at 40 years
     γ-rays within 100 Mpc
     Iron Pseudocarbynes
  Pre-Solar Grains:
     C-rich presolar grains
     SiC Type U/C grains
     Grains from massive stars
     Placing the Sun
     SiC Presolar grains
  Chemical Evolution:
     Radionuclides in 2020s
     Zone models H to Zn
     Mixing ejecta
  Thermodynamics, Opacities & Networks
     Radiative Opacity
     Skye EOS
     Helm EOS
     Five EOSs
     Equations of State
     12C(α,γ)16O Rate
     Proton-rich NSE
     Reaction networks
     Bayesian reaction rates
  Verification Problems:
     Validating an astro code
     Su-Olson
     Cog8
     Mader
     RMTV
     Sedov
     Noh
Software Instruments
AAS Journals
   2024 AAS YouTube
   2024 AAS Peer Review Workshops

2024 ASU Energy in Everyday Life
2024 MESA Classroom
Outreach and Education Materials

Other Stuff:
   Bicycle Adventures
   Illustrations
   Presentations



Contact: F.X.Timmes
my one page vitae,
full vitae,
research statement, and
teaching statement.
The 12C(α,γ)16O reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning (2017)

The creation of carbon and oxygen in our Universe is one of the forefront questions in nuclear astrophysics. The determination of the abundance of these elements is key to our understanding of both the formation of life on Earth and to the life cycles of stars.

While nearly all models of different nucleosynthesis environments are affected by the production of carbon and oxygen, a key ingredient, the precise determination of the reaction rate of $^{12}$C($\alpha , \gamma$)$^{16}$O, has long remained elusive. This is owed to the reaction's inaccessibility, both experimentally and theoretically. Nuclear theory has struggled to calculate this reaction rate because the cross section is produced through different underlying nuclear mechanisms. Isospin selection rules suppress the E1 component of the ground state cross section, creating a unique situation where the E1 and E2 contributions are of nearly equal amplitudes. Experimentally there have also been great challenges. Measurements have been pushed to the limits of state-of-the-art techniques, often developed for just these measurements. The data have been plagued by uncharacterized uncertainties, often the result of the novel measurement techniques that have made the different results challenging to reconcile.

However, the situation has markedly improved in recent years, and the desired level of uncertainty 10% may be in sight. In this review article the current understanding of this critical reaction is summarized. The emphasis is placed primarily on the experimental work and interpretation of the reaction data, but discussions of the theory and astrophysics are also pursued. The main goal is to summarize and clarify the current understanding of the reaction and then point the way forward to an improved determination of the reaction rate.


image
Figure 29 - Comparison of the reaction rate and uncertainty calculated in this work (orange band, solid central line) and that from Kunz et al. (2002) (blue band, dashed central line) normalized to the adopted value from Angulo et al. (1999) (NACRE compilation) (gray band, solid central line). The deviations at higher temperature are the result of the different narrow resonance and cascade transitions that were considered in the different works.
 



*   *

* * * *