LUNA: Nuclear Astrophysics Deep Underground
LUNA: Nuclear Astrophysics Deep Underground
Broggini, C.; Bemmerer, D.; Guglielmetti, A.; Menegazzo, R.
Nuclear astrophysics strives for a comprehensive picture of the nuclear reactions responsible for synthesizing the chemical elements and for powering the stellar evolution engine. Deep underground in the Gran Sasso laboratory the cross sections of the key reactions of the proton-proton chain and of the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) cycle have been measured right down to the energies of astrophysical interest. The salient features of underground nuclear astrophysics are summarized here. The main results obtained by LUNA in the last twenty years are reviewed, and their influence on the comprehension of the properties of the neutrino, of the Sun and of the Universe itself are discussed. Future directions of underground nuclear astrophysics towards the study of helium and carbon burning and of stellar neutron sources in stars are pointed out.
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Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science 60(2010), 53-73
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.nucl.012809.104526
Cited 123 times in Scopus -
Contribution to WWW
ArXiv preprint server: http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.4165
Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-14052