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Reaction atlas · CNO cycles

Particle-exchange reaction · CNO-IV

19F(p,α)16O

: fluorine‑19 + proton → oxygen‑16 + helium‑4How to read the notation

On this page

Fluorine-19 captures a proton and splits into oxygen-16 and a helium nucleus. It is the main way stars destroy fluorine during hydrogen burning.

Fluorine is the most fragile of the light elements made in stars, and its origin is still debated. In AGB stars, which are thought to make much of the fluorine in the Galaxy, part of the fluorine produced can be destroyed by this reaction if it is mixed into hot hydrogen-burning layers. The reaction also returns material to oxygen-16 and closes the fourth CNO cycle.

Facts

How well known
The part of the reaction that leaves oxygen excited, so that it emits a γ-ray, has now been measured underground at stellar energies. The main part, which leaves oxygen in its ground state, is known below 200 keV only from the indirect Trojan Horse method.
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Reaction rates
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Q-value · energy released
8.114 MeV
Gamow window
  • 71 ± 20 keVAGB star, 50 MK (CNO-IV)
  • 180 ± 64 keVclassical nova, 0.2 GK (CNO-IV)
Kind
Particle-exchange reaction

How it was measured

5 measurements, 2011–2023Show the list
  1. 2011

    Trojan Horse method · below about 300 keV (α0 channel)

    First study of the α0 channel at astrophysical energies, from the quasi-free parts of 2H(19F,α16O)n and 19F(3He,α16O)d. Resonances not observed before raise the rate at astrophysical temperatures by up to a factor of 1.7. [1]

  2. 2015

    Direct measurement at the surface · 0.2–0.6 MeV (α0 channel)

    Direct measurement at deeply sub-Coulomb energies; the S-factor is 1.5–2 times larger than the extrapolations then adopted. [2]

  3. 2017

    Trojan Horse method · about 0–1 MeV (α0 channel)

    Improved Trojan-Horse measurement of the α0 S-factor over the energy range of astrophysical interest. [3]

  4. 2021

    JUNAChina Jinping Underground Laboratory

    Direct measurement underground · 72.4–344 keV

    First measurement of the (p,αγ) channel in the low-energy part of the Gamow window (70–200 keV), at the China JinPing Underground Laboratory. [4]

  5. 2023

    Direct measurement at the surface · E_cm = 0.4–0.9 MeV (α0 channel)

    Direct measurement with the LHASA silicon-strip array; the S-factor is about 1.4 times the NACRE value in the 0.6–0.8 MeV region, confirming the trend of the latest data. A fuller account with angular distributions followed in 2025 and resolves the discrepancy between the two earlier data sets. [5, 6]

Measurements (EXFOR)

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

217 datasets in 47 EXFOR entries, 1954–2023 · 4 without an energy range, not drawn

Temperature
Lowest energy in EXFOR
170 keV
Lombardo et al., 2015 · S · O2278.007
Distance from the Gamow peak
2.5 Gamow widths above
E₀ = 70.6 keV, window 50.5–90.7 keV
Rate from energies not in EXFOR
> 99.99%
at T₉ = 0.05, smooth estimate · > 99.99% of it lies below the lowest energy in EXFOR
10 keV100 keV1 MeV10 MeV100 MeVCentre-of-mass energy (keV)E₀ = 70.6 keVσSσ→Eₓdσ/dΩYωγotherlowest in EXFOR 170 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 section8185 keV – 3.44 MeV
SS-factor2189 keV – 3.44 MeV
σ→Eₓpartial28170 keV – 21.6 MeV
dσ/dΩangular distribution157180 keV – 36.1 MeV
Yyield7316 keV – 3.8 MeV
ωγresonance strength4225 keV – 1.52 MeV
…other7693 keV – 36.1 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

The reaction proceeds through states of 20Ne and has several α channels: to the 16O ground state, emitting α particles, and to excited 16O states, followed by γ-ray (and pair) emission. At low energy each channel must be measured separately. For the α0 channel, direct data reach 0.2 MeV and give S-factors 1.5–2 times larger than the adopted extrapolations, and Trojan-Horse data, which reach lower energies, show resonances that direct measurements had not seen.

Between 0.4 and 0.9 MeV, measurements with the LHASA silicon-strip array (2023, 2025) give an α0 S-factor about 1.4 times the NACRE value at 0.6–0.8 MeV and resolve the disagreement between the two earlier data sets there. The (p,αγ) channel was measured deep underground at JUNA across the whole Gamow window, from E = 72 to 344 keV.

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

Open questions

  • The contribution of low-energy resonances to the separate α channels.
  • The ratio to 19F(p,γ)20Ne, which decides how much material leaks from the CNO cycles towards neon.

Related reactions

References

  1. 1.
  2. 2.

    I. Lombardo, D. Dell'Aquila, A. Di Leva, I. Indelicato et al.

    Toward a reassessment of the 19F(p,α0)16O reaction rate at astrophysical temperatures

    Phys. Lett. B 748, 178 (2015)

  3. 3.

    I. Indelicato et al.

    New improved indirect measurement of the 19F(p,α)16O reaction at energies of astrophysical relevance

    Astrophys. J. 845, 19 (2017)

  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.

How to cite this page

J. Skowronski, 19F(p,α)16O, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/19F-pa-16O.

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

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