Study of ¹⁸Ne for HCNO breakout

Nuclear properties of the proton-rich exotic nuclei ¹⁸Ne are needed to reduce uncertainties in the reaction rate calculations for the nuclear reaction sequence ¹⁴O(α,p)¹⁷F(p,γ)¹⁸Ne, which leads to breakout from the HCNO cycle. The rates of these reactions are critical in understanding nucleosynthesis in stellar environments such as Classical Novae and Type I X-ray bursts. The level structure of ¹⁸Ne has been studied at Florida State University through the ¹⁶O(³He,n)¹⁸Ne reaction via a neutron/charged-particle coincidence measurement using the CATRiNA neutron detector array, which is composed of 32 deuterated benzene liquid scintillators, and a compact silicon detector array. Coincidences between neutrons and charged particles were used to directly obtain branching ratios above the particle decay threshold in ¹⁸Ne. Preliminary results from this experiment will be presented.