The New Deep-Underground Direct Measurement of 22Ne(α, γ)26Mg with EASγ: A Feasibility Study

22Ne(α, γ)26Mg is pivotal in the understanding of several open astrophysical questions, as the nucleosynthesis beyond Fe through the s-process, but its stellar reaction rate is still subject to large uncertainties. These mainly arise from its extremely low rate in the Gamow energy region, whose measurement is hampered by the unavoidable presence of the cosmic ray background noise. A possibility to overcome this issue is to perform the measurement in a quasi background-free environment, such as that offered by the underground Bellotti Ion Beam Facility at LNGS. This is the key idea of EASγ experiment. In this study, the signal from the de-excitation of the compound nucleus 26Mg has been simulated and its detection has been investigated both on surface and deep-underground laboratories. The simulation results show the enhancement in sensitivity achieved by performing the measurement deep underground and with an additional shielding, yielding to unprecedented sensitivity.