MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
For over five decades one of the most important goals of experimental nuclear astrophysics has been to reduce the uncertainty in the S-factor of radiative alpha capture on 12C at stellar energies. We have developed a simple model, which relates the radiative capture reaction and the exclusive electrodisintegration reaction. We then show that by measuring the rate of electrodisintegration of 16O in a high luminosity experiment using a state-of-the-art gas target and a new generation of energy-recovery linear (ERL) electron accelerators under development, it is possible to significantly improve the statistical uncertainty of the radiative alpha capture on 12C in terms of E1 and E2 S-factors in the astrophysically interesting region, which are the key inputs for any nucleosynthesis and stellar evolution models. The model needs to be validated experimentally, but, if successful, it can be used to improve the precision of other astrophysically-relevant, radiative capture reactions, thus opening a significant avenue of research that spans nuclear structure, astrophysics and high-power accelerator technology.
