Weak proton capture on 3He

Abstract

The astrophysical S factor for the proton weak capture on 3He is calculated with correlated-hyperspherical-harmonics bound and continuum wave functions corresponding to realistic Hamiltonians consisting of the Argonne v14 or Argonne v18 two-nucleon and Urbana-VIII or Urbana-IX three-nucleon interactions. The nuclear weak charge and current operators have vector and axial-vector components that include one- and many-body terms. All possible multipole transitions connecting any of the p-3He S- and P-wave channels to the 4He bound state are considered. The S factor at a p-3He center-of-mass energy of 10 keV, close to the Gamow-peak energy, is predicted to be 10.1×10-20 keV b with the AV18/UIX Hamiltonian, a factor of ≃4.5 larger than the value adopted in the standard solar model. The P-wave transitions are found to be important, contributing about 40% of the calculated S factor. The energy dependence is rather weak: the AV18/UIX zero-energy S factor is 9.64×10^-20 keV b, only 5% smaller than the 10 keV result quoted above. The model dependence is also found to be weak: the zero-energy S factor is calculated to be 10.2×10^-20 keV b with the older AV14/UVIII model, only 6% larger than the AV18/UIX result. Our best estimate for the S factor at 10 keV is therefore (10.1±0.6)×10^-20 keV b, when the theoretical uncertainty due to the model dependence is included. This value for the calculated S factor is not as large as determined in fits to the Super-Kamiokande data in which the hep flux normalization is free. However, the precise calculation of the S factor and the consequent absolute prediction for the hep neutrino flux will allow much greater discrimination among proposed solar neutrino oscillation solutions.

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