Measurement of the β-p emission of ²⁰Mg and the breakout from the hot CNO cycle

In the astrophysically important reaction 19Ne(p,γ) 20Na, the rate is dominated by a single key resonance at 450 keV above the proton-emission threshold in 20Na. Throughout the last few decades many experiments have been performed aimed at finding the identity of this state. Despite this, the spin-parity of the key resonant state is still up for debate. The present paper describes a new experiment studying the β-delayed proton decay of 20Mg aimed at solving this issue. © 2010 American Institute of Physics