Abstract
Nuclear reaction rates are one of the most important ingredients in describing how stars evolve. The study of the nuclear reactions involved in different astrophysical sites is thus mandatory to address most questions in nuclear astrophysics. Direct measurements of the cross-sections at stellar energies are very challenging–if at all possible. This is essentially due to the very low cross-sections of the reactions of interest (especially when it involves charged particles), and/or to the radioactive nature of many key nuclei. In order to overcome these difficulties, various indirect methods such as the transfer reaction method at energies above or near the Coulomb barrier are used to measure the spectroscopic properties of the involved compound nucleus that are needed to calculate cross-sections or reaction rates of astrophysical interest. In this review, the basic features of the transfer reaction method and the theoretical concept behind are first discussed, then the method is illustrated with recent performed experimental studies of key reactions in nuclear astrophysics.
Highlights
Our understanding of stellar evolution in the Universe has been largely improved thanks to the interaction between three fields: observation, stellar modeling and nuclear physics
Sub-threshold resonance states [36, 37]. These very peripheral transfer reactions performed at sub-Coulomb energies are good tools to determine asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) which are weakly sensitive to the calculations and which may be linked to the partial width of a resonance [11]
An alternative method would be to determine the cross-section through the activation method, which was performed by Uberseder et al [112] or by the (d,p) transfer reaction to determine the excitation energies, orbital angular momenta and neutron spectroscopic factors of 61Fe states that are important for the calculation of the direct component (Section 2.2) of the (n,γ) reaction cross-section in the region of astrophysical interest (Ec.mx30 keV)
Summary
Our understanding of stellar evolution in the Universe has been largely improved thanks to the interaction between three fields: observation, stellar modeling and nuclear physics. ) indirect techniques such as transfer reaction method [6], Coulomb dissociation method [7,8,9], Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient (ANC) method [10,11,12], surrogate reactions [13] and Trojan Horse Method (THM) [14,15,16] are good alternatives In these various methods, the experiments are usually carried out at higher energies than the Coulomb barrier which implies higher cross-sections than in direct measurements. The experiments are usually carried out at higher energies than the Coulomb barrier which implies higher cross-sections than in direct measurements These methods allow the use of stable beams to study reactions involving radioactive nuclei not far from the valley of stability. We conclude with some perspectives in a last section
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