The Trojan Horse Method in Nuclear Astrophysics

Aurora Tumino,Stefano Romano,Marisa Gulino,Livio Lamia,Iolanda Indelicato,Rapisarda Giuseppe Gabriele,Pizzone Rosario Gianluca,Marco La Cognata,Guardo Giovanni Luca,Silvio Cherubini,Giuseppe D’Agata,Claudio Spitaleri,Sergi Maria Letizia,Roberta Spartá,C Spitaleri,L Lamia,M.L Sergi,R.G Pizzone,G Rapisarda

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201818401016

Abstract

The Trojan Horse Method (THM) represents the indirect way to measure reactions between charged particles at astrophysical energies. This is done by measuring the quasi free cross section of a suitable three body process. The basic features of the THM will be presented together with some applications to demonstrate its practical use.

Highlights

The Trojan Horse Method (THM) has been introduced in nuclear astrophysics as an indirect approach to determine low-energy cross sections overcoming the main issues of direct experiments, such as the Coulomb repulsion and the electron screening [1, 2]
The first one is responsible for the exponential decrease of the cross section at the relevant temperatures, while the electron screening, due to the electrons surrounding the interacting ions, leads to an increased cross section compared to the one for bare nuclei that is necessary to assess the reaction rate in astrophysical plasma
The choice of the three-body process is done in such a way that target a has a wave function with a large amplitude for a x − s cluster configuration, x being the target of the two-body reaction

Summary

Introduction

The Trojan Horse Method (THM) has been introduced in nuclear astrophysics as an indirect approach to determine low-energy cross sections overcoming the main issues of direct experiments, such as the Coulomb repulsion and the electron screening [1, 2]. The THM ([3,4,5,6] and references therein) makes use of a suitable A + a→b + B + s two-to-three body process to measure the astrophysical A + x→b + B two-body reaction of interest by means of a relation between the two based on nuclear reaction theories. The selected part of the three-body phase space conveys with the quasi-free (QF) kinematics: the other cluster s remains spectator to the process, and A + x→b + B can be regarded as a half-off-energyshell (HOES) two-body reaction, usually referred to as a QF reaction. There is no additional Coulomb barrier between A and avy ions or from n the subsequent the constituent kinetic energy poaf rtthiceleTxHorfetahce2tiTonH-ins ucchleousesna ,toonbcee the initial above the

How to apply the THM

Resent results