Proton capture by 15N at stellar energies

Excitation functions of the ¹⁵N(p, γ)¹⁶O proton capture reaction have been obtained at θ_γ = 45° and E_p = 150–2500 keV. Below E_p = 400 keV, the reaction is dominated by capture into the ground state of ¹⁶O. The observed excitation function for the latter process can be explained if, in addition to the two well-known J^π = 1^? resonances at E_p = 338 and 1028 keV, a direct radiative capture process (DC → 0) is included in the analysis. The direct capture component in the capture reaction is enhanced through interference effects on the tails of the two resonances. From the observed direct capture cross section, a single-particle spectroscopic factor of C²S(1p) = 1.8 ± 0.4 has been deduced for the ground state in ¹⁶O. The extrapolated astrophysical S-factor of S(0) = 64 ± 6 keV · b for the ¹⁵N(p, γ₀)¹⁶O reaction is a factor of 2.5 larger than previously reported. This result amplifies the role of the oxygen side cycle in the CNO hydrogen burning process.The observed excitation function of the ¹⁵N(p, α₁γ₁)¹²C reaction at E_p = 150 – 2500 keV shows that this reaction makes a negligible contribution to hydrogen burning at stellar energies [S(0) ≈ 0.1 keV · b] compared to ${}^{15}\text{N}\text{(}\text{p}\text{, γ}{}_0\text{)}{}^{16}\text{O and}{}^{15}\text{N}\text{(}\text{p}\text{, α}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>o</mtext>}}\text{)}{}^{12}\text{C}$.