Mass-23 nuclei in astrophysics

Abstract

The formation of mass-23 nuclei by radiative capture is of great interest in astrophysics. A topical problem associated with these isobars is the so-called 22Na puzzle of ONe white dwarf novae, where the abundance of 22Na observed is not as is predicted by current stellar models, indicating there is more to learn about how the distribution of elements in the universe occurred. Another concerns unexplained variations in elements abundance on the surface of aging red giant stars. One method for theoretically studying nuclear scattering is the Multi-Channel Algebraic Scattering (MCAS) formalism. Studies to date have used a simple collective-rotor prescription to model the target states which co..