Nuclear reactions for astrophysics and for nuclear structure study

Nuclear reactions play important role in the formation of elements in the universe, stability of stars and in the study of nuclear structure. Elements which we see on earth and in our body, have been produced via different nuclear reactions occurred after the Big Bang and in the stellar environment. Therefore, the knowledge of cross sections and rates of these reactions is necessary in order to understand the origin of elements in the Universe. As energies corresponding to the stellar temperature lie from few tens to hundreds of keV/u, the direct measurement in the lab become often difficult because of the small cross sections, low yields and due to electron screening effects at such low energies. To overcome these difficulties alternative indirect methods are being used depending on the type of reaction involved. The Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient method the Coulomb dissociation (CD) method, the Trojan horse method and (d, p) reactions are the ones which are being developed as indirect methods in nuclear astrophysics. In this talk, I shall discuss these methods along with their applications to some important nuclear reactions. I shall also discuss CD as a tool to study the structures of exotic nuclei.