Indirect methods for astrophysical nuclear reaction rates

Abstract

Astrophysical nuclear reaction rates are usually extremely difficult to measure directly due to the very low relevant astrophysical energies. Thus indirect methods have been proposed, where the reaction can be measured at higher energy and the connection to the astrophysical process is established via direct reaction theory. These approaches are briefly reviewed here. We discuss in more detail the Trojan-Horse Method, which studies the two-body astrophysical reaction as a subprocess of an exclusive three-body breakup reaction. We show the essential features of the approach and discuss recent applications, which shows the promising aspects of the approach.