Trojan Horse Method And Radioactive Ion Beams: Study Of F-18(P,Alpha)O-15 Reaction At Astrophysical Energies

The Trojan Horse Method was applied for the first time to a Radioactive Ion Beam induced reaction to study the reaction F-18(p,alpha)O-15 via the three body reaction F-18(d,alpha O-15)n at the low energies relevant for astrophysics.The abundance of F-18 in Nova explosions is an important issue for the understanding of this astrophysical phenomenon. For this reason it is necessary to study the nuclear reactions that produce or destroy F-18 in Novae. F-18(p,alpha)O-15 is one of the main F-18 destruction channels. Preliminary results are presented in this paper.