Electron capture rates in stars studied with heavy ion charge exchange reactions

TL;DR

This paper reviews how heavy ion charge exchange reactions at high energies can be used as indirect methods to determine electron capture rates in stars, which are crucial for understanding stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It offers a theoretical framework based on a simple reaction model to interpret heavy ion charge exchange experiments for astrophysical applications.

Findings

Heavy ion charge exchange reactions can infer Gamow-Teller matrix elements.

These methods are useful for studying short-lived nuclei relevant to stellar processes.

The review provides guidance for applying charge exchange reactions in nuclear astrophysics.

Abstract

Indirect methods using nucleus-nucleus reactions at high energies (here, high energies mean $\sim$ 50 MeV/nucleon and higher) are now routinely used to extract information of interest for nuclear astrophysics. This is of extreme relevance as many of the nuclei involved in stellar evolution are short-lived. Therefore, indirect methods became the focus of recent studies carried out in major nuclear physics facilities. Among such methods, heavy ion charge exchange is thought to be a useful tool to infer Gamow-Teller matrix elements needed to describe electron capture rates in stars and also double beta-decay experiments. In this short review, I provide a theoretical guidance based on a simple reaction model for charge exchange reactions.