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4. First direct measurement of the 59Cu(p,⍺)56Ni cross-section to understand the Ni-Cu cycle

First direct measurement of the 59Cu(p,⍺)56Ni cross-section to understand the Ni-Cu cycle

Published: October 2021 Ahn

Lead Author(s): J.S. Randhawa

The Ni-Cu cycle, which features the competition between ⁵⁹Cu(p,⍺)⁵⁶Ni and ⁵⁹Cu(p,𝛾)⁶⁰Zn, is thought to operate in X-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae through the νp-process. If ⁵⁹Cu(p,⍺)⁵⁶Ni dominates, it can halt the reaction flow above Cu which directly impacts the X-ray burst light curves and casts doubts over the vp-process as a producer of p-nuclei. We performed the first direct measurement of the ⁵⁹Cu(p,⍺)⁵⁶Ni reaction using an exotic beam of ⁵⁹Cu and IRIS detector array at TRIUMF. Learn more

Publication: First direct measurement of ⁵⁹Cu(p,α)⁵⁶Ni: A step towards constraining the Ni-Cu cycle in the cosmos