The deeper the better-Scientists explore the Universe from inside of a mountain

• 作者: Yang Sun
• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2022,（2）
• 所属期刊栏目: NEWS&VIEWS
• 页码范围: 111-113
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The nuclear history of the Universe started shortly after the Big Bang.Through nuclear reactions,the ashes from the primordial explosion were transformed to hydrogen,helium and trace of other light elements,and to heavier products from rich variety of nucle-osynthesis processes at all kinds of astrophysical sites.Many differ-ent types of reaction occur in every burning stage of stellar life,but only a few are critical in determining the major phases of the burn-ing process [1].These critical reactions play key roles in our under-standing of the element production,without which our Universe would be totally different.One famous example is the Hoyle state in 12C at about 7.7 MeV of excitation,first postulated by Fred Hoyle and later confirmed experimentally in the 1950s.The existence of the Hoyle state overcomes the bottleneck problem in the fusion reaction of 8Be and 4He to produce 12C.The production possibility is greatly enhanced because the 12C nucleus possesses a resonance state near to the combined energies of the two nuclei involved.