Study of the 12C +16 O fusion reaction in carbon burning via the Trojan Horse Method

12C +12 C is the main reaction during core and shell carbon burning in massive stars, however, at temperatures higher than 109K when most of the carbon is depleted and its abundance is lower than 16O, the 12C +16 O fusion can also become relevant. Moreover, 12C +16 O reaction can ignite also in the scenario of explosive carbon burning. The astrophysical energy region of interest thus ranges from 3 to 7.2 MeV in the center-of-mass frame. There are various measurements of the cross-section available in the literature, however, they all stop around 4 MeV, making extrapolation necessary at lower energies. To try to solve this uncertainty and corroborate direct measurement the Trojan Horse Method was applied to three-body processes 16O(14N, α24Mg)2H and 16O(14N, p27Al)2H to study the 16O(12C, α)24Mg and 16O(12C, p)27Al reactions.