Nuclear astrophysics from direct reactions

C. A. Bertulani

Published 2008-02-23, updated 2009-01-22Version 2

Accurate nuclear reaction rates are needed for primordial nucleosynthesis and hydrostatic burning in stars. The relevant reactions are extremely difficult to measure directly in the laboratory at the small astrophysical energies. In recent years direct reactions have been developed and applied to extract low-energy astrophysical S-factors. These methods require a combination of new experimental techniques and theoretical efforts, which are the subject of this presentation.