Abstract
Recently, the triple- (3) process, by which three He nuclei are fused into a C nucleus in stars, was studied by using different methods to solve the quantum mechanical three-body problem. The results for the thermonuclear reaction rate for the process differ by several orders at low stellar temperatures of K. In this paper, we will present calculations of the 3 process by using a modified Faddeev three-body formalism in which the long-range effects of Coulomb interactions are accommodated. The reaction rate of the process is calculated via an inverse process: three-alpha (3-) photodisintegration of a C nucleus. The calculated reaction rate is about 10 times larger than that of the Nuclear Astrophysics Compilation of Reaction Rates at K and is notably smaller than the results of recent three-body calculations. We will discuss a possible reason for the difference.
1 More- Received 16 December 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.87.055804
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