Low-energy cross section of the 7Be(p,gamma)8B solar fusion reaction from the Coulomb dissociation of 8B

An exclusive measurement of the Coulomb breakup of 8B into 7Be+p at 254A MeV was used to infer the low-energy 7Be(p,gamma)8B cross section. The radioactive 8B beam was produced by projectile fragmentation of 350A MeV 12C and separated with the FRagment Separator (FRS) at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. The Coulomb-breakup products were momentum-analyzed in the KaoS magnetic spectrometer; particular emphasis was placed on the angular correlations of the breakup particles. These correlations demonstrate clearly that E1 multipolarity dominates within the angular cuts selected for the analysis. The deduced astrophysical S17 factors exhibit good agreement with the most recent direct 7Be(p,gamma)8B measurements. By using the energy dependence of S17 according to the recently refined cluster model for 8B of P. Descouvemont [Phys. Rev. C 70, 065802 (2004)], we extract a zero-energy S factor of S17(0)=20.6±0.8(stat)±1.2(syst) eV b. These errors do not include the uncertainty of the theoretical model to extrapolate to zero relative energy, estimated by Descouvemont to be about 5%.