https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2019-12833-0
Review
Astrophysics studies with the Trojan Horse Method
1
INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, via S. Sofia 62, 95123, Catania, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Ettore Majorana”, Università degli Studi di Catania, via S. Sofia 64, 95123, Catania, Italy
3
Facoltà di Ingegneria e Architettura, Università degli Studi di Enna “Kore”, 94100, Enna, Italy
* e-mail: spitaleri@lns.infn.it
Received:
26
March
2019
Accepted:
24
July
2019
Published online:
26
September
2019
The Trojan Horse Method represents an indirect approach to investigate reactions of astrophysical relevance at the energies of interest, free of Coulomb suppression and electron screening effects. In this review, we will examine how the Trojan Horse Method has evolved from the study of the quasi-free reaction mechanism. We will first present the basic features of the quasi-free reaction mechanism in the framework of the theory of direct reactions, from quasi-free scattering to quasi-free reactions processes, and its evolution towards the Trojan Horse Method with its modern theory. We will review the validity tests to assess the technique, the procedure to analyze the data and to extract the astrophysical factor. Finally, we will discuss some of the most important experimental results recently published related to nuclear astrophysics and applications.
© Società Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2019
