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

12 C + 12 C is the main reaction during core and shell carbon burning in massive stars, however, at temperatures higher than 10 9 K when most of the carbon is depleted and its abundance is lower than 16 O, the 12 C + 16 O fusion can also become relevant. Moreover, 12 C + 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 16 O( 14 N, α 24 Mg) 2 H and 16 O( 14 N, p 27 Al) 2 H to study the 16 O( 12 C, α) 24 Mg and 16 O( 12 C, p) 27 Al reactions.