Programme

O.19 -- Oral, VCTP-51

Date: Tuesday, 4 August 2026

Time: 14:00 - 14:20

Toward a unified microscopic description of astrophysical capture reactions

Nguyen Le Anh (1), Nguyen Gia Huy (1), Dao Nhut Anh (1), Do Huy Tho (1), Hoang Thai An (1)

(1) Department of Physics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Microscopic descriptions of astrophysical capture reactions provide an important link between nuclear structure and stellar nucleosynthesis, while reducing the reliance on phenomenological models. Previous applications of the Skyrme Hartree-Fock (HF) framework have successfully described low-energy nucleon radiative capture reactions. In this work, this microscopic approach is extended beyond the nucleon limit to investigate, for the first time, a low-energy nucleus-capture reaction in the $^{3}$He+$\alpha$ system. The nucleon-$\alpha$ potential is derived self-consistently from the Skyrme interaction and folded with the $^{3}$He density to construct the nucleus-nucleus interaction. Scaling parameters constrained by elastic-scattering phase shifts are then used consistently in the radiative-capture calculation. As a first application, the framework is employed to study the astrophysical $^{3}$He($\alpha,\gamma$)$^{7}$Be reaction, a key process in stellar hydrogen burning and Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The calculated phase shifts and elastic-scattering observables are reproduced satisfactorily, and the astrophysical $S$ factor shows good agreement with available experimental data. These results demonstrate that the Skyrme HF framework can provide a unified microscopic description of astrophysical capture reactions, extending its applicability from nucleon capture to nucleus capture with minimal empirical input. References: [1] N. Le Anh, N. Gia Huy, D. Nhut Anh, D. Huy Tho, and H. Thai An, \textbf{Physical Review C} 113, 034622, 2026. Acknowledgments: This research is funded by the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under Grant No. 103.04-2025.07.

Presenter: Nguyen Le Anh