Speaker
Description
Indirect nuclear astrophysics methods are essential for determining stellar reaction rates, especially when direct measurements are challenging. This contribution will highlight recent advances using the Trojan Horse Method (THM) [1,2] to investigate key reactions in stars, such as carbon burning (12C+12C and 12C+16O fusion). Our studies focus on the dominant alpha and proton evaporation
channels, revealing resonant structures in the cross-sections that significantly boost reaction rates at stellar temperatures. Furthermore, this presentation will discuss a unique application of indirect techniques to probe the charge symmetry breaking of nuclear forces. We achieve this through the measurement of the Coulomb-free proton-proton scattering length via the quasifree p(d,pp)n reaction. These diverse applications, achievable with low-energy accelerators, underscore the power of indirect approaches in unraveling fundamental nuclear properties and their impact on stellar evolution, including the influence of nuclear clustering on reaction pathways.
[1] A. Tumino, C.A. Bertulani, M. La Cognata, L. Lamia, R.G. Pizzone, S. Romano and S. Typel, Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science 71, (2021) 033642
[2] A. Tumino et al., Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics 143 (2025) 104164
