Hydrogen burning of 17O in classical novae

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jul 15;95(3):031101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.031101. Epub 2005 Jul 14.

Abstract

We report on the observation of a previously unknown resonance at E(lab)(R)=194.1+/-0.6 keV in the 17O(p,alpha)14N reaction, with a measured resonance strength omegagamma(palpha)=1.6 +/- 0.2 meV. We studied in the same experiment the 17O(p,gamma)18F reaction by an activation method and the resonance-strength ratio was found to be omegagamma(palpha)/omegagamma(pgamma) = 470 +/- 50. The corresponding excitation energy in the 18F compound nucleus was determined to be 5789.8 +/- 0.3 keV by gamma-ray measurements using the 14N(alpha, gamma)18F reaction. These new resonance properties have important consequences for 17O nucleosynthesis and gamma-ray astronomy of classical novae.