The nuclear physics of the hydrogen burning in the Sun

Abstract

Underground nuclear astrophysics focuses its efforts towards a deeper knowledge of the nuclear reactions that rule stellar evolution processes and enable the synthesis of the elements of the periodic table. Deep underground in the Gran Sasso laboratory, the cross-sections of the key reactions of the hydrogen burning have been measured right down to the energies of astrophysical interest. The main results obtained by the LUNA Collaboration are reviewed, and their contributions to the solution of the solar neutrino problem and to the age of the globular cluster are discussed.