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Volume 12
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10.3390/universe12030070
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Article

The Impact of Recent LUNA Measurements of NeNa Reactions on 26Al Stellar Nucleosynthesis

by
Umberto Battino
1,2,*,† on behalf of The NuGrid Collaboration,
Tommaso Gallo
3,
Diego Vescovi
2,4,
Sergio Cristallo
2,4,
Andreas Best
1,5,
Oscar Straniero
2,6,
Eliana Masha
7,
Erin R. Higgins
8,9 and
Raphael Hirschi
10,†
1
Department of Physics, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
2
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)–Osservatorio Astronomico d’Abruzzo, Via M. Maggini, 64100 Teramo, Italy
3
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3PU, UK
4
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)-Sezione di Perugia, Via A. Pascoli, 06123 Perugia, Italy
5
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)-Sezione di Napoli, Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
6
INFN-Sezione di Roma, pz. Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
7
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
8
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, UK
9
Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
10
Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Keele, Newcastle-under-Lyme ST5 5BG, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
The NuGrid Collaboration: http://nugrid.github.io.
Universe 2026, 12(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12030070
Submission received: 16 December 2025 / Revised: 18 February 2026 / Accepted: 25 February 2026 / Published: 2 March 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nuclear Astrophysics)
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Abstract

Recent measurements performed by the LUNA(Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) collaboration between 2019 and 2024 have provided the most precise direct determinations to date of several key reaction rates in the NeNa cycle, specifically the 20Ne(p,γ)21Na and the 22Ne(p,γ)23Na reactions, as well as its bridge to the MgAl cycle, i.e., the 23Na(p,γ)24Mg reaction. Despite their improved accuracy, these updated rates are not yet consistently incorporated into widely used nuclear reaction network compilations. We explore the astrophysical impact of adopting the new LUNA rates by performing nucleosynthesis calculations, focusing on the case of 26Al nucleosynthesis and considering four different stellar environments: low-mass AGB stars, massive stars, very massive stars and core-collapse supernovae. Our results show substantial sensitivity of 26Al production to the revised rates. In the AGB model, the surface 26Al abundance decreases by up to 30%, while in the massive star model, the 26Al abundance in the C-burning shell increases by 51%. In contrast, the impact on both the 26Al yields ejected by very massive stars and on the explosive nucleosynthesis in the supernova model is negligible. These findings have direct implications for galactic chemical evolution, the global budget of 26Al, and theoretical predictions of the 60Fe/26Al ratio, which will be critically tested by forthcoming γ-ray observations from missions such as the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI).
Keywords: evolved stars; stellar evolution; stellar interiors; nucleosynthesis evolved stars; stellar evolution; stellar interiors; nucleosynthesis

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MDPI and ACS Style

Battino, U., on behalf of The NuGrid Collaboration; Gallo, T.; Vescovi, D.; Cristallo, S.; Best, A.; Straniero, O.; Masha, E.; Higgins, E.R.; Hirschi, R. The Impact of Recent LUNA Measurements of NeNa Reactions on 26Al Stellar Nucleosynthesis. Universe 2026, 12, 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12030070

AMA Style

Battino U on behalf of The NuGrid Collaboration, Gallo T, Vescovi D, Cristallo S, Best A, Straniero O, Masha E, Higgins ER, Hirschi R. The Impact of Recent LUNA Measurements of NeNa Reactions on 26Al Stellar Nucleosynthesis. Universe. 2026; 12(3):70. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12030070

Chicago/Turabian Style

Battino, Umberto on behalf of The NuGrid Collaboration, Tommaso Gallo, Diego Vescovi, Sergio Cristallo, Andreas Best, Oscar Straniero, Eliana Masha, Erin R. Higgins, and Raphael Hirschi. 2026. "The Impact of Recent LUNA Measurements of NeNa Reactions on 26Al Stellar Nucleosynthesis" Universe 12, no. 3: 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12030070

APA Style

Battino, U., on behalf of The NuGrid Collaboration, Gallo, T., Vescovi, D., Cristallo, S., Best, A., Straniero, O., Masha, E., Higgins, E. R., & Hirschi, R. (2026). The Impact of Recent LUNA Measurements of NeNa Reactions on 26Al Stellar Nucleosynthesis. Universe, 12(3), 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12030070

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