Facets of charge-exchange reactions - from astrophysics to double beta decay

In this paper we present recent results on the (d, He-2) charge exchange reaction at intermediate energies. We show that the (d, 2He) reaction has evolved to a powerful spectroscopic tool capable of providing new and sometimes unexpected insight into nuclear structure phenomena. The key issue here is the high resolution of order 100 keV, which can now routinely be obtained. The program has been launched at the AGOR Superconducting Cyclotron Facility at the KVI Groningen. By now, it covers a wide field of physics questions ranging from few-body physics, the structure of halo-nuclei to questions pertaining to the dynamics of supernova explosions and nuclear synthesis, and more recently to the measurements of double-beta (beta beta) decay matrix elements and the determination of half-lives of decaying nuclei. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.