English

Bayesian Framework for the E1 and E2 Astrophysical Factors at 300 keV from Subthreshold and Ground-State Asymptotic Normalization Coefficients

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-11-18 v2

Abstract

The 12C(α,γ)16O^{12}\mathrm{C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}\mathrm{O} reaction governs the carbon-to-oxygen ratio set during helium burning, shaping white-dwarf structure and Type~Ia supernova yields. At the astrophysical energy E300 keVE \approx 300~\mathrm{keV}, the cross section is controlled by the subthreshold 11^{-} (7.12~MeV) and 2+2^{+} (6.92~MeV) states, whose contributions depend on their asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) C1C_{1} and C2C_{2}, respectively. We perform a Bayesian analysis of the SE1(300 keV)S_{E1}(300~\mathrm{keV}) and SE2(300 keV)S_{E2}(300~\mathrm{keV}) factors using calibrated RR-matrix mappings and experimental ANC constraints for the 11^{-}, 2+2^{+}, and 0+0^{+} ground state. For SE1(300 keV)S_{E1}(300~\mathrm{keV}), flat prior on the 11^{-} ANC lead to broad posterior with 68%68\% credible interval spanning [71.4,93.4] [71.4,\,93.4]~keV\,b, while Gaussian priors concentrate weight near the reported ANC values and yield narrower posteriors. For SE2(300 keV)S_{E2}(300~\mathrm{keV}), the analysis includes the interference of the radiative transition through the subthreshold resonance with the direct capture to the ground-state, which depends on the ground-state ANC C0C_{0}, giving broad posterior with 68%68\% credible interval spanning [30.7,50.5][30.7,\,50.5]~keV\,b. The Gaussian priors centered near anchor values. The resulting posteriors quantify both correlations and uncertainties: despite incorporating the published ANC constraints, the 68%68\% intervals remain broad, showing that present ANC determinations do not yet reduce the astrophysical uncertainty. Overall, the Bayesian framework provides statistically robust posteriors for SE1(300 keV)S_{E1}(300~\mathrm{keV}) and SE2(300 keV)S_{E2}(300~\mathrm{keV}), improving the reliability of extrapolations for stellar modeling and nucleosynthesis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.17102,
  title  = {Bayesian Framework for the E1 and E2 Astrophysical Factors at 300 keV from Subthreshold and Ground-State Asymptotic Normalization Coefficients},
  author = {A. M. Mukhamedzhanov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.17102},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

10 pages, five figures