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Reaction atlas · MgAl cycle

Particle-exchange reaction · MgAl cycle

27Al(p,α)24Mg

: aluminium‑27 + proton → magnesium‑24 + helium‑4How to read the notation

On this page

The reaction that closes the MgAl cycle. A proton hits 27Al and an alpha particle comes out, leaving 24Mg, where the cycle started.

Aluminium made in hydrogen burning can either return to magnesium through this reaction or move on to silicon through 27Al(p,γ)28Si. The balance between the two sets how much aluminium survives, and whether material stays inside the MgAl cycle or leaks out of it. This matters for the aluminium-rich and magnesium-poor stars observed in globular clusters and for the aluminium made in nova explosions.

Facts

How well known
The low-energy resonances that set the rate are known only from the indirect Trojan Horse method and from upper limits; no direct measurement reaches the energies of hydrogen burning in stars.
Live evaluation
No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
Reaction rates
Explore the rates →
Q-value · energy released
1.601 MeV
Gamow window
  • 125 ± 34 keVAGB hot-bottom burning, 80 MK (MgAl cycle)
  • 230 ± 72 keVclassical nova, 0.2 GK (MgAl cycle)
Kind
Particle-exchange reaction

How it was measured

2 measurements, 2021–2022Show the list
  1. 2021

    Trojan Horse method · 2H(27Al,α24Mg)n, E up to 1.5 MeV

    First Trojan Horse study of the reaction; a group of resonances appears close to the 70–120 keV Gamow window of hydrogen burning. [1]

  2. 2022

    Trojan Horse method · E = 84.3 keV resonance and its neighbours

    Contribution of the 84.3 keV resonance determined and upper limits set on the nearby resonances; new recommended reaction rate. [2]

Measurements (EXFOR)

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

120 datasets in 25 EXFOR entries, 1951–2022 · 1 without an energy range, not drawn

Temperature
Lowest energy in EXFOR
891 keV
NELSON et al., 1984 · dσ/dΩ · C0686.004
Distance from the Gamow peak
11 Gamow widths above
E₀ = 124 keV, window 90.3–158 keV
Rate from energies not in EXFOR
100%
at T₉ = 0.08, smooth estimate · 100% of it lies below the lowest energy in EXFOR
10 keV100 keV1 MeV10 MeV100 MeVCentre-of-mass energy (keV)E₀ = 124 keVσ→Eₓdσ/dΩYωγotherlowest in EXFOR 891 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)
σ→Eₓpartial31.97 MeV – 7.13 MeV
dσ/dΩangular distribution107891 keV – 24.7 MeV
Yyield11.6 MeV – 2.41 MeV
ωγresonance strength468.9 keV – 2.4 MeV
…other4485 keV – 3.86 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 the temperatures of hot-bottom burning and of novae the rate depends on narrow resonances close to the proton threshold and on the α-particle branching of the corresponding states of 28Si. Many of these resonances are too weak to have been observed directly in the (p,α) channel, so the compiled rates (Angulo et al. 1999; Iliadis et al. 2010) combine upper limits, the (p,γ) strengths of the same resonances and proton widths from transfer reactions.

The Trojan Horse method gave the first data in this energy range. The three-body reaction 2H(27Al,α24Mg)n covered centre-of-mass energies up to 1.5 MeV and showed a group of resonances close to the Gamow window of stellar hydrogen burning, 70–120 keV (Palmerini et al. 2021). A second analysis determined the contribution of the 84.3 keV resonance, set upper limits on the nearby ones and gave a new recommended rate (La Cognata et al. 2022).

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]
  • —C. Iliadis et al., Nucl. Phys. A 841, 31 (2010) [4]

Open questions

  • Direct observation of the low-energy resonances in the (p,α) channel, which requires the low background of an underground laboratory.
  • The ratio of the (p,α) and (p,γ) rates on 27Al, which decides whether the MgAl cycle closes or leaks to silicon.

Related reactions

References

  1. 1.
  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)

  4. 4.

How to cite this page

J. Skowronski, 27Al(p,α)24Mg, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/27Al-pa-24Mg.

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

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