IReNA Online Seminar featuring Michael Wiescher (Notre Dame)

Title: The CNO cycle and the CNO Neutrinos in our Sun

Abstract: BOREXINO has recently measured for the first time the flux of neutrinos from the decay of radioactive 15O in the solar core, providing a unique direct way to determine the solar metallicity. The solar 15O abundance depends directly of the 14N(p,γ)15O reaction rate at solar temperatures, which largely relies on the extrapolation of reaction data obtained at higher energies. This extrapolation carries significant uncertainties due to the complex interference patterns near the particle threshold in 15O, which translates into a substantial uncertainty for a reliable prediction of the solar metallicty. We will present new data on low energy measurements at the CASPAR underground accelerator laboratory and lifetime measurements of 15O threshold states at the Nuclear Science Laboratory at Notre Dame to come to an improved prediction of the reaction rate at solar temperature.

Hosted by Thanassis Psaltis of TU Darmstadt