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Reaction atlas · Helium burning

Radiative capture · Helium burning

16O(α,γ)20Ne

: oxygen‑16 + helium‑4 → neon‑20 + gamma rayHow to read the notation

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Oxygen-16 captures a helium nucleus and becomes neon-20. In helium burning it is slow, so most of the oxygen survives.

This is the last step of the chain of helium captures in helium burning. Because it is slow at the temperatures where helium burns, little oxygen turns into neon, and stars end helium burning with mostly carbon and oxygen. If the reaction were much faster, the oxygen made by the previous step would be lost to neon and the carbon-to-oxygen balance would change.

Facts

How well known
The rate rests on a direct-capture extrapolation from higher-energy data; no data reach the helium-burning energies.
Live evaluation
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Reaction rates
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Q-value · energy released
4.730 MeV
Gamow window
  • 390 ± 95 keVcore helium burning, 0.2 GK (Helium burning)
Kind
Radiative capture

How it was measured

2 measurements, 2010–2011Show the list
  1. 2010

    Direct measurement at the surface

    New measurements of the low-energy resonances combined with earlier unpublished data in an R-matrix analysis, giving a rate for helium burning. [1]

  2. 2011

    DRAGON, TRIUMFTRIUMF

    Inverse kinematics and recoil separators · E = 2.26 MeV

    Total cross section from 20Ne recoils; first determination of the total S-factor together with its direct-capture transitions. [2]

Measurements (EXFOR)

Every dataset EXFOR holds for this reaction, drawn by the energies it covers, against the energies a star uses.

34 datasets in 16 EXFOR entries, 1964–2012 · 10 without an energy range, not drawn

core helium burning, T₉ = 0.2 (200 MK)

Lowest energy in EXFOR
858 keV
Van der Leun et al., 1965 · dσ/dΩ · F1064.002
Distance from the Gamow peak
2.5 Gamow widths above
E₀ = 390 keV, window 296–485 keV
Rate from energies not in EXFOR
> 99.99%
at T₉ = 0.2, smooth estimate · > 99.99% of it lies below the lowest energy in EXFOR
100 keV1 MeV10 MeV100 MeVCentre-of-mass energy (keV)E₀ = 390 keVσSσ→Eₓdσ/dΩωγotherlowest in EXFOR 858 keV
  • Gamow window, hatched where no measurement reaches
  • Outlined bars are shown but not counted (the rule is under “How these numbers are made”).
  • A diamond is a dataset at a single energy. Bars running off the right edge continue to higher energies.
The datasets of the gap map, by quantity
The datasets of the gap map, by quantity
QuantityDatasetsE_cm range (keV)
σcross section2883 keV – 2.51 MeV
SS-factor12.26 MeV – 2.26 MeV
σ→Eₓpartial21.7 MeV – 2.35 MeV
dσ/dΩangular distribution9858 keV – 7.94 MeV
ωγresonance strength8893 keV – 7.21 MeV
…other2888 keV – 2.7 MeV
How these numbers are made

Lowest measured energy, everywhere in the data explorer: the lowest centre-of-mass energy at which a dataset in EXFOR measures the reaction itself (cross section, S-factor, angular distribution, yield or resonance strength), judged point by point. A point counts when it is a value, not an upper or lower limit, when it lies at least one standard deviation above zero, and when its energy is physical: at least 1 keV for charged particles, and not below the threshold of an endothermic reaction. Not counted: extrapolated, calculated, evaluated or derived values; superseded, deleted or preliminary data; ratios; a single S-factor value, which in EXFOR is a fit result; and indirect methods (Trojan horse, Coulomb dissociation, ANC, surrogate reactions), recognized from EXFOR's method and analysis codes, their text and the title. Frame and unit errors of EXFOR are corrected first, and values the literature shows to be upper limits are read as limits, from a list that gives the evidence for each. Datasets that reach the same energy within 0.5% are all credited, earliest first. Rate from energies not in EXFOR: the share of the rate integrand at that temperature outside the energy ranges the counted datasets cover (from their lowest measured point to their highest), with a constant S-factor (σ ∝ S(E₀)/E · e^−2πη, so the integrand is e^(−E/kT − 2πη)); for a neutron capture, σ ∝ 1/v. Resonances make the real integrand lumpy, so read it as a smooth baseline.

Details

At helium-burning energies no resonance contributes significantly and the reaction proceeds mainly by direct capture, which makes the cross section very small. The rate is obtained from an R-matrix description of the low-energy resonances together with the direct-capture transitions (Costantini et al. 2010). DRAGON measured the total cross section at E = 2.26 MeV in inverse kinematics and determined, for the first time together, the total S-factor and its direct-capture components (Hager et al. 2011).

Peak energy E0 ± half the 1/e width, centre of mass, from the AME2020 masses.

Evaluations

Compilations that combine the data into a recommended rate.

  • —C. Angulo, M. Arnould, M. Rayet et al. (NACRE Collaboration), Nucl. Phys. A 656, 3 (1999) [3]

Open questions

  • The direct-capture S-factor at energies below 1 MeV, where no measurement exists.

Related reactions

References

  1. 1.

    H. Costantini, R. J. deBoer, R. E. Azuma, M. Couder, J. Görres, J. W. Hammer et al.

    16O(α,γ)20Ne S factor: measurements and R-matrix analysis

    Phys. Rev. C 82, 035802 (2010) · 10.1103/PhysRevC.82.035802

  2. 2.
  3. 3.

    C. Angulo, M. Arnould, M. Rayet et al. (NACRE Collaboration)

    A compilation of charged-particle induced thermonuclear reaction rates

    Nucl. Phys. A 656, 3 (1999)

How to cite this page

J. Skowronski, 16O(α,γ)20Ne, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/16O-ag-20Ne.

Cite the date you used; it is the last change to this page.

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