High-precision (p,t) reaction measurement to determine Ne-18(alpha,p)Na-21 reaction rates

x-ray bursts are identified as thermonuclear explosions in the outer atmosphere of accreting neutron stars. The thermonuclear runaway is fueled by the alpha p process that describes a sequence of (alpha,p) reactions triggered by the Ne-18(alpha,p)Na-21 breakout reaction from the hot CNO cycles. We studied the level structure of the compound nucleus Mg-22 by measuring the Mg-24(p,t)Mg-22 reaction at the Grand Raiden spectrometer at Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka. A large number of alpha-unbound states was identified and precise excitation energies were determined. Based on shell model and alpha-cluster model calculations we predict the level parameters for determining the stellar reaction rate of Ne-18(alpha,p)Na-21 for a wide temperature range. x-ray burst simulations have been performed to study the impact of the reaction on the x-ray burst luminosity.