Seminarium Fizyki Jądra Atomowego

Nuclear reactions that generate energy and synthesize elements take place inside the stars in a relatively narrow energy window: the Gamow peak. In this region, usually below 100 keV, the reaction cross-section drops almost exponentially with decreasing energy. The extremely low value has always prevented its measurement in a laboratory at the Earth's surface, where the signal-to-background ratio would be too small because of the background generated by cosmic-ray interactions. The LUNA facility exploits the low-background environment of the Gran Sasso National Laboratories in Italy to measure directly these reactions. The most recent results will be presented and an outlook on ongoing and future projects will be given.