English

High Resolution Study of $^{40}$Ca to Constrain Potassium Nucleosynthesis in NGC 2419

Nuclear Experiment 2024-01-15 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

The globular cluster NGC 2419 was the first to exhibit a Mg-K anticorrelation, linked to hydrogen burning at temperatures between 80-260 MK. However, the key K-destroying reaction, 39K(p,γ)40Ca^{39}\mathrm{K}(p,\gamma)^{40}\mathrm{Ca}, has a large rate uncertainty in this range. We significantly constrain this rate with a high resolution 39K(3He,d)40Ca^{39}\mathrm{K}(^{3}\mathrm{He},d)^{40}\mathrm{Ca} study. We resolve the Erc.m.=154_{\text{r}}^{\text{c.m.}} = 154 keV resonance in 39K+p^{39}\mathrm{K}+p for the first time, increasing the previous rate by up to a factor 13 and reducing its 1σ1\sigma width by up to a factor of 42. Reaction network calculations for NGC 2419 suggest that this could lower temperatures needed to reproduce the Mg-K anticorrelation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.06754,
  title  = {High Resolution Study of $^{40}$Ca to Constrain Potassium Nucleosynthesis in NGC 2419},
  author = {William Fox and Richard Longland and Caleb Marshall and Federico Portillo Chaves},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.06754},
  year   = {2024}
}