A single fluid bubble chamber for measuring nuclear reaction rates of astrophysical importance.

Radiative capture reactions, such as (α,γ), (p,γ) and (n,γ), are of fundamental importance to the study of nucleosynthesis of elements in stellar cores, supernovae, etc. In the laboratory, these reactions are usually measured by bombarding gas targets or very thin films with particle beams. The low density of these targets and the sensitivity to background from environmental and cosmic sources can lead to long running times. In this contribution we explain a method - using a single fluid bubble chamber to measure nuclear reaction cross sections. The higher density of the fluid and measuring the time-reversed reaction increases the luminosity of the experiment by several orders of magnitude. We have measured the cross section of the photodisintegration process ¹⁹F(γ,α)¹⁵N by bombarding a superheated fluid of C₃F₈ with Bremsstrahlung γ rays produced from the electron injector at Jefferson Laboratory reaching cross sections of the time-reversed ¹⁵N(α,γ)¹⁹F reaction of about 80 picobarn.