New mass measurements refine X ray burst reaction flow

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 05, 2025

A team at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has directly measured the masses of the short lived nuclei phosphorus-26 and sulfur-27, providing data needed to determine a key nuclear reaction rate in Type I X ray bursts on neutron stars.

The study reports high precision mass measurements of these proton rich nuclei, which are important for modeling the rapid