Astrophysical S factor for Be-9(p,gamma)B-10

Abstract

The Be-9(p, gamma) B-10 reaction plays an important role in primordial and stellar nucleosynthesis of light elements in the p shell, but the energy dependence of S(E) has not been well understood. We reanalyze the existing Be-9(p, gamma) B-10 experimental data within the framework of the R-matrix method. The direct capture part of the S factor is calculated using the experimentally measured asymptotic normalization coefficients for B-10 --> Be-9 + p. The fitted parameters of the low-lying B-10 resonances are also required to be consistent with previous measurements of Li-6(alpha, gamma) log. A good simultaneous fit to both radiative capture reactions is found, in contrast to previous analyses. These results demonstrate that experimentally measured asymptotic normalization coefficients, coupled to the R-matrix method, can provide a reasonable determination of direct radiative capture rates, even when the captured proton is tightly bound in the final nucleus. [S0556-2813(99)03608-0].