Abstract
Helium(4He, or α)is the second most abundant element in the observable Universe. The α-particle induced reactions such as(α, γ), (α, n) and (α, p) play a crucial role in nuclear astrophysics, especially for understanding stellar heliumburning. Because of the strong Coulomb repulsion, it is greatly hindered to directly measure the cross sections for these α-capture reactions at stellar energies. Alpha-cluster transfer reaction is a powerful tool for investigation of astrophysical(α, γ), (α, n)and(α, p)reactions since it can preferentially populate the natural-parity states with an α-cluster structure which dominantly contribute to these astrophysical α-capture reactions during stellar heliumburning. In this paper, we reviewthe theoretical scheme, theexperimental technique, astrophysical applications and the future perspectives of such approach based on α-cluster transfer reactions.
Highlights
Nuclear astrophysics research is currently a frontier in the quest to understand how the elements in Universe were created and how stars evolve over time
Because the energies corresponding to typical temperatures in stars are significantly below the high Coulomb barrier, the direct measurements of α-particle induced reactions at stellar energies are greatly hindered due to the vanishing cross section resulting from the small Coulomb penetrability at energies of astrophysical interest
From the perspective of nuclear astrophysics, α transfer reactions with large cross sections provide an alternative method for extracting level parameters such as the α spectroscopic factor (S α), spectroscopic amplitude (SA), asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC), or reduced α widths for the subthreshold resonances crucially involved in determining the astrophysical S-factor of the challenging α-capture reactions
Summary
Nuclear astrophysics research is currently a frontier in the quest to understand how the elements in Universe were created and how stars evolve over time. Because 4He is the second most abundant element in the observable Universe after hydrogen, α-cluster induced reactions like (α, γ), (α, n), and (α, p) play a crucial role in nuclear astrophysics, especially for understanding stellar helium burning, which is a critical stage during the evolution of stars. Because the energies corresponding to typical temperatures in stars are significantly below the high Coulomb barrier, the direct measurements of α-particle induced reactions at stellar energies (so-called Gamow window) are greatly hindered due to the vanishing cross section resulting from the small Coulomb penetrability at energies of astrophysical interest. We focuse on a specific and complementary method, α-cluster transfer reactions, which specially aims at determining the cross sections and the stellar rates of α-particle induced reactions in the stellar helium burning phase, which are more difficult directly to measure at the Gamow window than proton induced reactions since they have higher Coulomb barrier. Because the α transfer reaction is most likely to occur by α-cluster transfer mechanism, it can be used to study α-particle induced astrophysical reactions [5], and to evaluate the nuclear structure (e.g., α-decay widths [6]) and nuclear reaction mechanisms [7]
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