Abstract
The radionuclide Fe60 has been of great interest to the nuclear astrophysics community for over a decade. An initial discrepancy between the observed and modeled Galactic Fe60/Al26 ratio motivated numerous studies focused on the nucleosynthesis of these two isotopes, though the cross section of the primary astrophysical production reaction, Fe59(n,γ)Fe60, has remained purely theoretical. The present work offers a first experimental constraint on the Fe59(n,γ)Fe60 cross section at astrophysical energies, obtained indirectly via Coulomb dissociation, and demonstrates that the theoretical reaction rates used in present stellar models are not highly erroneous.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 211101 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 112 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 28 2014 |