https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01779-z
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Validity test of 20Ne as a Trojan Horse nucleus toward the measurement of the 16O+16O fusion cross section
1
Center for Nuclear Study (CNS), University of Tokyo, RIKEN Campus, 351-0198, Wako, Saitama, Japan
2
Fachbereich Physik, Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany
3
Theorie, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
4
Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, 95123, Catania, Italy
5
Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 00040, Rome, Italy
6
Monash Centre for Astrophysics (MoCA), School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, 3800, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
7
Sezione di Perugia, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, 06125, Perugia, Italy
8
Departamento FAMN, Universidad de Sevilla, Apartado 1065, 41080, Sevilla, Spain
9
Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 00040, Monteporzio Catone, Italy
10
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, 277-8583, Kashiwa, Japan
11
Department of Physics and Astronomy “Ettore Majorana”, University of Catania, 95123, Catania, Italy
12
Centro Siciliano di Fisica Nucleare e Struttura della Materia (CSFNSM), 95123, Catania, Italy
13
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 050032, Almaty, Kazakhstan
14
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 010008, Astana, Kazakhstan
15
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Uzbek Academy of Sciences, 100214, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
16
Institute of Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), 4001, Debrecen, Hungary
17
Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, 31-342, Kraków, Poland
18
Kore University, 94100, Enna, Italy
19
Heavy Ion Laboratory, University of Warsaw, 02-093, Warszawa, Poland
a
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Received:
17
June
2025
Accepted:
20
December
2025
Published online:
20
January
2026
The 16O+16O fusion reaction is important for understanding explosive oxygen burning during late evolutionary stages of massive stars as well as for understanding low-energy heavy-ion fusion-reaction mechanism. This paper represents the first step to determine the excitation function for the major exit channels, 
Si and 
P, toward stellar energies indirectly by the Trojan Horse Method via the 16O(20Ne,
Si)4He and 16O(20Ne,
P)4He three-body reactions. Indeed, here we report on a validity test of the approach showing, for the first time, the possibility to use 20Ne as Trojan Horse nucleus. Results on the reaction channel identification and reaction mechanism determination, with particular emphasis on the momentum distribution of the 
O inter-cluster motion in the projectile 20Ne nucleus are thoroughly discussed. Fair agreements of the present results with theoretical predictions indicate a possibility to identify the quasi-free process, which is the first step for the application of the Trojan Horse method to independently measure the 16O+16O fusion cross section in the next future.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
