Theory of deuteron stripping and pick-up reactions for nuclear structure studies

Deuteron stripping and pick-up experiments - (d; p) and (p; d) - have been used for a long time to study the structure of nuclei. Today these experiments are often carried out in inverse kinematics in state-of-the-art radioactive beams facilities around the world, extending the boundaries of our knowledge of the nuclear chart. The nuclear structure information obtained from these experiments relies entirely on transfer reaction theory. We review the theory of (d; p) and (p; d) reactions starting from early formulations and ending with the most recent developments. In particular, we describe the recent progress made in the understanding of the three-body dynamics associated with the deuteron breakup degrees of freedom, including effects of nonlocality, and discuss the role of many-body degrees of freedom within the three-body context. We also review advances in structure model calculations of one-nucleon overlap functions - an important structure input to (d; p) and (p; d) reaction calculations. We emphasize the physics missing in widely-used standard approaches available to experimentalists and review ideas and efforts aimed at including this physics, formulating the crucial tasks for further development of deuteron stripping and pickup reaction theor