${}^{12}\mathbf{C}+{}^{16}\mathbf{O}$ molecular resonances at deep sub-barrier energy

Abstract

The existence of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ molecular resonances at sub-barrier energy has been a significant problem in nuclear astrophysics because they strongly affect the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ fusion reaction rate in type Ia supernovae and heavy stars. However, experimental surveys have been limited to 4~MeV and cannot access the deep sub-barrier energy due to a very small fusion cross section. Here we predict a couple of resonances with $J^{\pi }=0^{+}$, $2^{+}$, and $4^{+}$ in the deep sub-barrier energy based on the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics calculation that reproduces the known resonances and low-lying spectrum of ${}^{28}\mathrm{Si}$.

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures