Recently, an international nuclear astrophysical team led by HOU Suqing (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) has successfully derived the ²⁶P(p,γ)²⁷S reaction rate based on the latest nuclear mass of sulfur-27. 

Other institutions involved in the study include the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary), the University of Hull (UK), the Michigan State University (US), and the Texas A&M University-Commerce (US).

Researchers found that the ²⁶P(p,γ)²⁷S reaction rate is dominated by a direct capture reaction mechanism rather than resonant capture. It is found that the new rate is overall smaller than the other previous rates from the statistical model by at least 1 order of magnitude in the temperature range of X-ray burst interest. 

The rp-process calculations show that the ratio of isotope abundances of sulfur-27/phosphorus-26 when adopting the new rates is smaller by a factor of 10 than that using the rates from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics reaction rate database (Reaclib). In addition, the accumulated material on the phosphorus-26 nucleus is larger than that on sulfur-27 during the whole rp-process episode. 

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.