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.
- Live evaluation
- No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
- Reaction rates
- Explore the rates →
- Q-value · energy released
- 8.114 MeV
- Kind
- Particle-exchange reaction
How it was measured
5 measurements, 2011–2023Show the listHide the list
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]
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]
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]
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]
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
- 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
- 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
| Quantity | Datasets | E_cm range (keV) |
|---|---|---|
| σcross section | 8 | 185 keV – 3.44 MeV |
| SS-factor | 2 | 189 keV – 3.44 MeV |
| σ→Eₓpartial | 28 | 170 keV – 21.6 MeV |
| dσ/dΩangular distribution | 157 | 180 keV – 36.1 MeV |
| Yyield | 7 | 316 keV – 3.8 MeV |
| ωγresonance strength | 4 | 225 keV – 1.52 MeV |
| …other | 7 | 693 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.
Discussed on the open-questions page
Related reactions
References
- 1.
M. La Cognata et al.
Astrophys. J. Lett. 739, L54 (2011) · 10.1088/2041-8205/739/2/L54
- 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.
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.
L. Y. Zhang et al. (JUNA Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 152702 (2021) · 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.152702
- 5.
G. L. Guardo et al.
Direct measurement of the 19F(p,α)16O reaction at E_cm = 0.4–0.9 MeV using the LHASA detector array
Eur. Phys. J. A 59 (2023) · 10.1140/epja/s10050-023-00957-1
- 6.
T. Petruse et al.
Direct measurement of the 19F(p,α)16O reaction using the LHASA detector array
Eur. Phys. J. A 61, 4 (2025) · 10.1140/epja/s10050-024-01462-9
How to cite this page
J. Skowronski, 19F(p,α)16O, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/19F-pa-16O.
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