Hydrogen burning of 17O in classical novae -: art. no. 031101

We report on the observation of a previously unknown resonance at E-R(lab)=194.1 +/- 0.6 keV in the O-17(p,alpha)N-14 reaction, with a measured resonance strength omega gamma(p alpha)=1.6 +/- 0.2 meV. We studied in the same experiment the O-17(p,gamma)F-18 reaction by an activation method and the resonance-strength ratio was found to be omega gamma(p alpha)/omega gamma(p gamma)=470 +/- 50. The corresponding excitation energy in the F-18 compound nucleus was determined to be 5789.8 +/- 0.3 keV by gamma-ray measurements using the N-14(alpha,gamma)F-18 reaction. These new resonance properties have important consequences for O-17 nucleosynthesis and gamma-ray astronomy of classical novae.