Toward a reassessment of the F-19(p, alpha(0))O-16 reaction rate at astrophysical temperatures

The F-19(p, alpha(0))O-16 reaction at low energies plays an important role in fundamental physics. In particular in nuclear astrophysics it represents, together with the F-19(p, gamma)Ne-20 reaction, the crossing point between the CNO and the NeNa cycles in stars. Further, in hydrogen-rich stellar environments, it is the most important fluorine destruction channel. In this paper we report new measurements on the F-19(p, alpha(0))O-16 reaction at deeply sub-Coulomb energies (0.2-0.6 MeV), a region where, despite the key role of this reaction, very few and old data are reported. The deduced astrophysical S-factor is approximate to 1.5-2 times larger than currently adopted extrapolations with possibly important astrophysical consequences. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.