Introduction of the new LUNA experimental setup for high precision measurement of the 13C(α,n)16O reaction for astrophysical purposes

Abstract

The 13C(α,n)16O reaction is the prevalent neutron source for the main s-process. The direct measurement of this reaction at stellar temperature (kT=8 keV) has so far not been possible due to the very low cross section at the corresponding energy. The extrapolation of the astrophysical S-factor of this reaction into the Gamow window (Eα,c.m.=140-230 keV) is complicated by the large uncertainties of the low-energy experimental data and the existence of a state of 17O near the α-threshold that can have a large effect on low energy cross section. The aim of this paper is to introduce the new LUNA experimental setup, dedicated to the investigation of 13C(α,n)16O reaction below Eα,lab=400 keV.