Investigation of structure in Al23 via resonant proton scattering of Mg22+p and the 22Mg(p,γ) Al23 astrophysical reaction rate

Proton resonant states in Al23 have been investigated for the first time by the resonant elastic and inelastic scattering of Mg22+p with a Mg22 beam at 4.38 MeV/nucleon bombarding a thick (CH2)n target. The low-energy Mg22 beam was separated by the CNS radioactive ion beam separator (CRIB). The energy spectra of recoiled protons were measured at average scattering angles of θlab 4°,17° and 23°. A new state has been observed at Ex=3.00 MeV with a spin-parity assignment of (3/2+). In addition, resonant inelastic scattering has populated three more states at excitation energies of 3.14, 3.26, and 3.95 MeV, with proton decay to the first excited state in Mg22 being observed. The new state at 3.95 MeV has been assigned a spin-parity of Jπ=(7/2+). The resonant parameters were determined by an R-matrix analysis of the excitation functions with a SAMMY-M6-BETA code. The core-excited structure of Al23 is discussed within a shell-model picture. The stellar reaction rate of the Mg22(p,γ)Al23 reaction has been reevaluated, and the revised total reaction rate is about 40% greater than the previous result for temperatures beyond T9=0.3.