Revised rates for the stellar triple-alpha process from measurement of 12C nuclear resonances.
In the centres of stars where the temperature is high enough, three alpha-particles (helium nuclei) are able to combine to form 12C because of a resonant reaction leading to a nuclear excited state. (Stars with masses greater than approximately 0.5 times that of the Sun will at some point in their lives have a central temperature high enough for this reaction to proceed.) Although the reaction rate is of critical significance for determining elemental abundances in the Universe, and for determining the size of the iron core of a star just before it goes supernova, it has hitherto been insufficiently determined. Here we report a measurement of the inverse process, where a 12C nucleus decays to three alpha-particles. We find a dominant resonance at an energy of approximately 11 MeV, but do not confirm the presence of a resonance at 9.1 MeV (ref. 3). We show that interference between two resonances has important effects on our measured spectrum. Using these data, we calculate the triple-alpha rate for temperatures from 10(7) K to 10(10) K and find significant deviations from the standard rates. Our rate below approximately 5 x 10(7) K is higher than the previous standard, implying that the critical amounts of carbon that catalysed hydrogen burning in the first stars are produced twice as fast as previously believed. At temperatures above 10(9) K, our rate is much less, which modifies predicted nucleosynthesis in supernovae.

title: Solar Neutrino Problem Related Nuclear Physics Experiments

title: Neutron spectroscopic factors of 7Li and astrophysical 6Li(n,g)7Li reaction rates
abstract: Angular distributions of the 7Li(6Li, 6Li)7Li elastic scattering and the 7Li(6Li, 7Lig.s.)6Li, 7Li(6Li, 7Li0.48)6Li transfer reactions at Ec.m. = 23.7 MeV are measured with the Q3D magnetic spectrograph. The optical potential of 6Li + 7Li is obtained by fitting the elastic scattering differential cross sections. Based on the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) analysis, spectroscopic factors of 7Li = 6Li ⊗ n are determined to be 0.73 ± 0.05 and 0.90 ± 0.09 for the ground and first exited states in 7Li, respectively. Using the spectroscopic factors, the cross sections of the 6Li(n, γ0, 1)7Li direct neutron capture reactions and the astrophysical 6Li(n, γ)7Li reaction rates are derived.

title: New determination of the 13C(a, n)16O reaction rate and its influence on the s-process nucleosynthesis in AGB stars
abstract: We present a new measurement of the $\alpha$-spectroscopic factor ($S_\alpha$) and the asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC) for the 6.356 MeV 1/2$^+$ subthreshold state of $^{17}$O through the $^{13}$C($^{11}$B, $^{7}$Li)$^{17}$O transfer reaction and we determine the $\alpha$-width of this state. This is believed to have a strong effect on the rate of the $^{13}$C($\alpha$, $n$)$^{16}$O reaction, the main neutron source for {\it slow} neutron captures (the $s$-process) in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Based on the new width we derive the astrophysical S-factor and the stellar rate of the $^{13}$C($\alpha$, $n$)$^{16}$O reaction. At a temperature of 100 MK our rate is roughly two times larger than that by \citet{cau88} and two times smaller than that recommended by the NACRE compilation. We use the new rate and different rates available in the literature as input in simulations of AGB stars to study their influence on the abundances of selected $s$-process elements and isotopic ratios. There are no changes in the final results using the different rates for the $^{13}$C($\alpha$, $n$)$^{16}$O reaction when the $^{13}$C burns completely in radiative conditions. When the $^{13}$C burns in convective conditions, as in stars of initial mass lower than $\sim$2 $M_\sun$ and in post-AGB stars, some changes are to be expected, e.g., of up to 25% for Pb in our models. These variations will have to be carefully analyzed when more accurate stellar mixing models and more precise observational constraints are available.

title: PMT waveform modeling at the Daya Bay experiment
abstract: Detailed measurements of Hamamatsu R5912 photomultiplier signals are presented, including the single photoelectron charge response, waveform shape, nonlinearity, saturation, overshoot, oscillation, prepulsing, and afterpulsing. The results were used to build a detailed model of the PMT signal characteristics over a wide range of light intensities. Including the PMT model in simulated Daya Bay particle interactions shows no significant systematic effects that are detrimental to the experimental sensitivity.

title: Current progress of nuclear astrophysical reaction and decay study at CIAE
abstract: Presented here was current progress of the study of nuclear astrophysical reaction and decay at CIAE. We studied astrophysical 12N(p,γ)13O reaction through the measurement of the 12N(d,n)13O angular distribution in inverse kinematics. Our result is in agreement with that from the 14N(12N,13O)13C reaction and two shell model calculations. We also measured the angular distributions of single neutron transfer reaction of 7Li(6Li,7Li)6Li, and derived the reaction cross section for 6Li(n,γ)7Li by using the present spectroscopic factor. The astrophysical reaction rate is found to be higher by a factor of 1.7 than the value adopted in previous reaction network calculations. In addition, half-life of 147Sm in metal samarium and Sm2O3 was measured. No significant change has been observed within the experimental uncertainty.

title: Cosmic constraint to DGP brane model: Geometrical and dynamical perspectives
abstract: In this paper, the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) brane model is confronted by current cosmic observational data sets from geometrical and dynamical perspectives. On the geometrical side, the recently released Union2 557 of type Ia supernovae (SN Ia), the baryon acoustic oscillation from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Two Degree Galaxy Redshift Survey (transverse and radial to line-of-sight data points), the cosmic microwave background measurement given by the seven-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations [shift parameters R, l{sub a}(z{sub *}) and redshift at the last scatter surface z{sub *}], ages of high redshifts galaxies, i.e., the lookback time and the high redshift gamma ray bursts are used. On the dynamical side, data points about the growth function of matter linear perturbations are used. Using the same data set combination, we also constrain the flat {Lambda}CDM model as a comparison. The results show that current geometrical and dynamical observational data sets much favor the flat {Lambda}CDM model and the departure from it is above 4{sigma}(6{sigma}) for the spatially flat DGP model with (without) SN systematic errors. The consistence of growth function data points is checked in terms of a relative departure of redshift-distance relation.

title: A Method to Calibrate Beam Position Monitor at HLS 200 MeV Linac
abstract: In order to improve injection efficiency of HLS 200Mev LINAC, we redesign a new strip line beam position monitor system, which is consisted of a strip line structure and a signal processing system. We decide on an online calibration method based on beam to find out the geometry centre displacement and relative gain offset. Before the BPM testing bench has been prepared, we make a simulation based on the model accounted for all factors influencing signal amplitudes and get the calibrating results. At last, we analyze the nonlinearity effect on the calibration results.