Transfer reactions as a Tool in Nuclear Astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper reviews how transfer reactions serve as an indirect method to determine nuclear reaction rates crucial for understanding stellar evolution, especially when direct measurements are impractical due to low cross-sections or radioactive nuclei.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the transfer reaction method, including its theoretical basis and recent experimental applications in nuclear astrophysics.

Findings

Transfer reactions effectively measure spectroscopic properties of nuclei.

Recent experiments demonstrate the method's utility in key astrophysical reactions.

The approach helps overcome challenges of direct cross-section measurements.

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.