Speaker
Rosanna Depalo
(Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia and INFN Padova)
Description
Cross sections of nuclear reactions relevant for astrophysics are crucial ingredients to understand the
energy generation inside stars and the element nucleosynthesis. At astrophysical energies, nuclear cross
sections are often too small to be measured in laboratories on the Earth’s surface, where the signal
would be overwhelmed by the cosmic-ray induced background.
The Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) is placed under the Gran Sasso
mountains (Italy). The extremely low background achieved at LUNA allows to perform uniquely
sensitive experiments.
Over the years, many crucial reactions involved in stellar hydrogen burning as well as big bang
nucleosynthesis have been measured at astrophysical energies.
An overview of the latest results and future perspectives of the LUNA experiment will be given.
