Status of the 7Be(p,g)8B S-factor

We present new measurements of the 7Besp,gd8B cross section from Ec.m.=116 to 2460 keV (where c.m. means center-of-mass), which incorporate several improvements over our previously published experiment, also discussed here. Our new measurements lead to S17s0d=22.1±0.6sexptd±0.6stheord eV b based on data from Ec.m.=116 to 362 keV, where the central value is based on the theory of Descouvemont and Baye. The theoretical error estimate is based on the fit of 12 different theories to our low-energy data. We compare our results to other S17s0d values extracted from both direct f7Besp,gd8Bg and indirect (Coulomb-dissociation and heavy-ion reaction) measurements, and show that the results of these three types of experiments are not mutually compatible. We recommend a “best” value, S17s0d=21.4±0.5sexptd±0.6stheord eV b, based on the mean of all modern direct measurements below the 1+ resonance. We also present S factors at 20 keV which is near the center of the Gamow window: the result of our measurements is S17s20d =21.4±0.6sexptd±0.6stheord eV b, and the recommended value is S17s20d=20.6±0.5sexptd±0.6stheord eV b.