Indirect techniques in nuclear astrophysics: The ANC method

Asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) have proven to be useful for determining reaction rates of interest in nuclear astrophysics. ANCs, which provide the normalization of the tail of the overlap function, determine S factors for direct capture reactions at astrophysical energies. During the past eight years, many ANCs have been measured by peripheral transfer reactions. Following an introduction to ANCs, recent experiments are briefly described. The astrophysical implications of some of these measurements are discussed and a future outlook for ANC measurements with radioactive beams is given.