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LUNA observes a rare nuclear reaction that occurs in giant red stars

12 February 2016

In December, the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) experiment reported the first direct observation of sodium production in giant red stars, one of the nuclear reactions that are fundamental to the formation of the elements that make up the universe.

LUNA is a compact linear accelerator for light ions (maximum energy 400 keV). A unique facility, it is installed in a deep-underground laboratory and shielded from cosmic rays. The experiment aims to study the nuclear reactions that take place inside stars, where elements that make up matter are formed and then driven out by gigantic explosions and scattered as cosmic dust.

For the first time, LUNA has observed three low-energy resonances in the neon-sodium cycle, the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na reaction, responsible for sodium production in red giants and energy generation. LUNA recreates the energy ranges of nuclear reactions and, with its accelerator, goes back in time to one hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars formed and the processes that gave rise to the huge variety of elements in the universe started.

This result is an important piece in the puzzle of the origin of the elements in the universe, which LUNA has been studying for 25 years. Stars assemble atoms through a complex system of nuclear reactions. A very small fraction of these reactions have been studied at the energies existing inside of the stars, and a large part of those few cases have been observed using LUNA.

A high-purity germanium detector with relative efficiency up to 130% was used for this particular experiment, together with a windowless gas target filled with enriched gas. The rock surrounding the underground facility at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory and additional passive shielding protected the experiment from cosmic rays and ambient radiation, making the direct observation of such a rare process possible.

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