Determination of the neutron-capture rate of C 17 for r -process nucleosynthesis

Abstract

With the RB3-LAND setup at GSI we have measured exclusive relative-energy spectra of the Coulomb dissociation of C18 at a projectile energy around 425A MeV on a lead target, which are needed to determine the radiative neutron-capture cross sections of C17 into the ground state of C18. Those data have been used to constrain theoretical calculations for transitions populating excited states in C18. This allowed to derive the astrophysical cross section σnγ∗ accounting for the thermal population of C17 target states in astrophysical scenarios. The experimentally verified capture rate is significantly lower than those of previously obtained Hauser-Feshbach estimations at temperatures T9≤1 GK. Network simulations with updated neutron-capture rates and hydrodynamics according to the neutrino-driven wind model as well as the neutron-star merger scenario reveal no pronounced influence of neutron capture of C17 on the production of second- and third-peak elements in contrast to earlier sensitivity studies.