Thermonuclear reaction S-30(p,gamma)Cl-31 studied via Coulomb breakup of Cl-31

Coulomb breakup at high energy in inverse kinematics of proton-rich Cl-31 was used to constrain the thermonuclear S-30(p,gamma)Cl-31 capture reaction rate under typical Type I x-ray burst conditions. This reaction is a bottleneck during rapid proton-capture nucleosynthesis (rp process), where its rate depends predominantly on the nuclear structure of Cl-31. Two low-lying states just above the proton-separation threshold of S-p = 296( 50) keV in Cl-31 have been identified experimentally using the (RB)-B-3-LAND setup at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH. Both states are considered to play a key role in the thermonuclear S-30( p,gamma)Cl-31 capture reaction. Excitation energies of the first J(pi) = 1/2(+), 5/2(+) states have been extracted and the reaction rate for proton capture on S-30 under typical rp-process temperatures has been investigated.