Cross sections and thermonuclear reaction rates for 42Ca(p, γ)43Sc, 44Ca(p, γ) 45Sc, 44Ca(p,n) 44Sc and 45Sc(p,n)45Ti

The yield of γ-rays from the reaction ⁴²Ca(p, γ)⁴³Sc has been measured as a function of bombarding energy over the range 0.63–3.01 MeV, from ⁴⁴Ca(p, γ)⁴⁵Sc over the range 0.775–4.00 MeV, from ⁴²Ca(p, p'γ)⁴²Ca over the range 2.24–3.01 MeV, and from ⁴⁴Ca(p, p'γ)⁴⁴Ca over the range 1.90–5.03 MeV. The cross section of the reaction ⁴⁴Ca(p, n)⁴⁴Sc has been measured from threshold to a bombarding energy of 5.05 MeV by observation of the 1157 keV γ-ray associated with the residual ⁴⁴Sc activity, and the cross section of the reaction ⁴⁵Sc(p, n)⁴⁵Ti has been measured from threshold to a bombarding energy of 4.00 MeV both by observation of the annihilation radiation associated with the residual ⁴⁵Ti activity and by measurement of the total neutron yield with a wide-angle BF₃ tube and paraffin detector. All these data are compared with statisticalmodel calculations and satisfactory agreement is achieved. Thermonuclear reaction rates for the (p, γ) and (p, n) reactions are calculated for the temperature range 5 × 10⁸-10¹⁰K and the significance of these results for explosive nucleosynthesis in stars is discussed.