The 17O(p, α)14N reaction: Physics and astrophysics

The nucleus ¹⁸F has been studied using the ¹⁷O(p,α)¹⁴N reaction over the energy range E_p = 400 to 1400 keV with thin Ti¹⁷O₂ targets. New resonances at E_p = 525, 688, 1015, 1276 and 1338 keV have been discovered. The strengths for all resonances in this energy range have been measured and the entire cross section in this region has been fitted using the R-matrix formalism of Lane and Thomas. Some discussion is presented concerning the values of the boundary condition parameters used in the R-matrix fit and two sets of results are presented corresponding to two different treatments of the boundary conditions.The ¹⁷O(p, α)¹⁴N cross section has been extrapolated to astrophysical energies using an R-matrix calculation incorporating the partial widths obtained from the data from E_p = 400 to 1400 keV. These results are compared with previous ¹⁷O(p, α)¹⁴N calculations and the ¹⁷O(p, γ)¹⁸F direct capture calculation of Rolfs and Rodney.