Direct measurement of the low energy resonances in $^{22}\rm{Ne}(α,γ)^{26}\rm{Mg}$ reaction

Abstract

The $^{22}\rm{Ne}(α,γ)^{26}\rm{Mg}$ is an important reaction in stellar helium burning environments as it competes directly with one of the main neutron sources for the s-process, the $^{22}\rm{Ne}(α,n)^{25}\rm{Mg}$ reaction. The reaction rate of the $^{22}\rm{Ne}(α,γ)^{26}\rm{Mg}$ is dominated by the low energy resonances at $E_α^{lab}$ = 650 and 830 keV respectively. The $E_α^{lab}$ = 830 keV resonance has been measured previously, but there are some uncertainties in the previous measurements. We confirmed the measurement of the $E_α^{lab}$ = 830 keV resonance using implanted $^{22}$Ne targets. We obtained a resonance strength of $ωγ$ = 35 $\pm$ 4 $μeV$, and provide a weighted average of the present and previous measurements of $ωγ$ = 35 $\pm$ 2 $μeV$ with reduced uncertainties compared to previous studies. We also attempted to measure the strength of the predicted resonance at $E_α^{lab}$ = 650 keV directly for the first time and found an upper limit of $ωγ$ $\mathrm{<0.15}$ $μeV$ for the strength of this resonance. In addition, we also studied the $E_{P}^{lab}$= 851 keV resonance in $^{22}\rm{Ne}(p,γ)^{23}\rm{Na}$, and obtained a resonance strength of $ωγ$ = 9.2 $\pm$ 0.7 eV with significantly lower uncertainties compared to previous measurements.