Magister Scientiae - MSc (Physics)

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Study of low-lying proton unbound states in 24Al using the 24Mg(3He; t)24Al reaction.
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Vyfers, E. C.; Triambak, Smarajit
This MSc project entails a study of astrophysically relevant states in 24Al, that are important for a better understanding of the 23Mg(p, )24Al nuclear reaction rate in classical novae. This is a crucial breakout reaction that links the NeNa and MgAl cycles and o ers an understanding of the nucleosynthesis of elements between Neon and Aluminium. In this work the K = 600 magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS was used together with a silicon detector array to measure proton branching ratios for the relevant states in 24Al using the 24Mg(3He,t) charge-exchange reaction. Our experiment yields the rst direct measurement of the relative proton branching ratios from these states. We used our measured observables and theoretical estimates of partial gamma widths of unbound states in 24Al, to indirectly determine the total 23Mg(p, ) reaction rate at nova temperatures.