Abstract
One of the main ingredients of nuclear astrophysics is the knowledge of the thermonuclear reactions responsible for powering the stellar engine and for the synthesis of the chemical elements. At astrophysical energies the cross section of nuclear processes is extremely reduced by the effect of the Coulomb barrier. The low value of cross sections prevents their measurement at stellar energies on Earth surface and often extrapolations are needed. The Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) is placed under the Gran Sasso mountain and thanks to the cosmic-ray background reduction provided by its position can investigate cross sections at energies close to the Gamow peak in stellar scenarios. Many crucial reactions involved in hydrogen burning has been measured directly at astrophysical energies with both the LUNA-50kV and the LUNA-400kV accelerators, and this intense work will continue with the installation of a MV machine able to explore helium and carbon burnings. Based on this progress, currently there are efforts in several countries to construct new underground accelerators. In this talk, the typical techniques adopted in underground nuclear astrophysics will be described and the most relevant results achieved by LUNA will be reviewed. The exciting science that can be probed with the new facilities will be highlighted.
Highlights
Nuclear processes generate the energy that makes stars shine
One of the main ingredients of nuclear astrophysics is the knowledge of the thermonuclear reactions responsible for powering the stellar engine and for the synthesis of the chemical elements
The Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) is placed under the Gran Sasso mountain and thanks to the cosmic-ray background reduction provided by its position can investigate cross sections at energies close to the Gamow peak in stellar scenarios
Summary
Nuclear processes generate the energy that makes stars shine. they are responsible of the synthesis of the elements (and isotopes) in stars. Μ is the reduced mass (in units of amu), and E is the center of mass energy (in units of keV) These small cross section values lead to an expected reaction rate in the laboratory framework too low to stand out from the laboratory background. It is not possible even to reach energy values close to the Gamow peak and extrapolations are needed, leading to substantial uncertainties Those extrapolations can be achieved by Exotic Nuclei and Nuclear/Particle Astrophysics (VII). The detector was shielded by few cm of OFHC copper and 25 cm of low level background lead when placed in the underground laboratory to obtain almost 4 order of magnitude reduction in the γ-ray background below 3 MeV [12]. Combined with a discussion on the future projects for nuclear astrophysics in underground with MV accelerators
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