Using the Trojan horse method to investigate resonances above and below the threshold in nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest

Resonant reactions play an important role in astrophysics as they might significantly enhance the cross section with respect to the direct reaction contribution and alter the nucleosynthetic flow, namely, the predicted energy production and nucleosynthesis path. Moreover, resonances bear information about states in the intermediate compound nucleus formed in the reaction. Therefore, we have modified the Trojan horse method (THM) to investigate resonant reactions. In this work, we will discuss two examples of reactions of astrophysical interest, whose cross sections show a resonant behavior: the 19F(α, n)16O cross section that displays resonances at energies above the particle emission threshold and the 13C(α, n)16O reaction, dominated by the-3 keV sub-threshold resonance due to the 6.356 MeV level in 17O.