A new measurement of the 7Be(p,γ)8B cross-section with an implanted 7Be target

Abstract The 7Be(p,γ)8B capture reaction is of major importance to the physics of the sun and the issues of the “solar neutrino puzzle”. We report here on a new determination of the absolute cross section of this reaction, using a novel method which overcomes some of the major experimental uncertainties of previous measurements. We utilize a 7Be target implanted into a Cu substrate and a uniformly scanned particle beam larger than the target spot, eliminating issues of target homogeneity and backscattering loss of 8B reaction products. The target was produced using a beam of 1.8·1010/s 7Be nuclei extracted at ISOLDE (CERN) from a graphite target bombarded by 1 GeV protons in a two-step reso…