Speaker
Description
As the slowest reaction in the carbon-nitrogen cycle of hydrogen burning, the $^{14}$N($p,\gamma$)$^{15}$O reaction modulates the rate of energy generation in stars in the cycle and thus determines the time spent on the main sequence. Astrophysical challenges, such as the age determination of globular clusters or the solar-abundance problem can be targeted by improving the precision on the low-energy S-factor that depends on the extrapolation over a wide energy range. This experiment aims to reduce the rate uncertainties by measuring the resonant and non-resonant cross sections within an energy range of E$_{c.m.} \sim 0.9$ MeV to $ \sim 1.7$ MeV in the $^{14}$N($p,\gamma$)$^{15}$O reaction via direct, inverse kinematics measurement using the DRAGON recoil separator. Preliminary results from this measurement will be presented.
