Rena Tanaka
Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science

I belong to a nuclear experimental physics laboratory, and I am now studying the reaction rate of the ¹⁵O(α,γ)¹⁹Ne reaction to understand the explosion mechanisms of X-ray bursts.

X-ray bursts are the most frequent thermonuclear explosions in the universe, but their explosion mechanisms are not fully understood. A number of nuclear reactions occur in this process, and we are particularly interested in the ¹⁵O(α,γ)¹⁹Ne reaction. This is the most crucial reaction in this process because it triggers heavy element synthesis. Therefore, by measuring the reaction rate of the ¹⁵O(α,γ)¹⁹Ne reaction in an experiment, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the nucleosynthesis processes occurring in X-ray bursts.