Spectroscopic Study on 39Ca Using the 40Ca(d,t)39Ca Reaction for Classical Nova Endpoint Nucleosynthesis

Abstract

In classical novae simulations, the uncertainty in the reaction rate of 38K(p,Υ) has been shown to affect the abundances of endpoint nuclides significantly. To better understand the reaction rate, we have done a spectroscopic study on 39Ca. The reaction 40Ca(d,t) 39Ca at a beam energy of 22 MeV was used to populate excited states of 39Ca. Tritons were momentum analyzed using a high resolution quadrupole-dipole-dipole-dipole (Q3D) magnetic spectrograph at 4 angles. Preliminary resonance energies for 39Ca within the energetic region of interest for classical novae - 6.0–6.4 MeV - were determined.