Nuclear processes not only generate the energy and drive the evolution of stars, but also are responsible for the synthesis of the elements in the Universe. Helium (${}^4$He, or $\alpha$) is the second most abundant element after hydrogen, thus $\alpha$-particle induced reactions such as $(\alpha ,\gamma )$, $(\alpha ,\mathrm{n})$ and $(\alpha ,\mathrm{p})$ play a crucial role in nuclear astrophysics, especially for understanding stellar helium burning. Direct measurement of the cross sections for these $\alpha$-capture reactions at stellar energies is greatly hindered because of the strong Coulomb repulsion. Alpha-cluster transfer reaction is a powerful tool for investigation of astrophysical $(\alpha ,\gamma )$, $(\alpha ,\mathrm{n})$ and $(\alpha ,\mathrm{p})$ reactions since it can preferentially populate the natural-parity states with an $\alpha$-cluster structure which dominantly contribute to these astrophysical $\alpha$-capture reactions during stellar helium burning. In this review we summarize the theoretical scheme, the experimental technique, astrophysical applications and the future perspectives of such approach based on $\alpha$-cluster transfer reactions.

核过程不仅产生能量并驱动恒星的演化，而且还负责宇宙中元素的合成。氦气${}^4$他，或 $\alpha$）是仅次于氢的第二最丰富的元素，因此 $\alpha$-颗粒诱导的反应，例如 $（\alpha ，\gamma ）$， $（\alpha ，\mathrm{ñ}）$ 和 $（\alpha ，\mathrm{p}）$在核天体物理学中起着至关重要的作用，尤其是在了解恒星氦燃烧方面。直接测量这些横截面$\alpha$由于强大的库仑斥力，极大地阻碍了恒星能量下的捕获反应。α-团簇转移反应是研究天体物理学的有力工具$（\alpha ，\gamma ）$， $（\alpha ，\mathrm{ñ}）$ 和 $（\alpha ，\mathrm{p}）$ 反应，因为它可以优先使用 $\alpha$-团簇结构，主要促成这些天体物理学 $\alpha$氦燃烧过程中的捕获反应。在这篇综述中，我们总结了基于这种方法的理论方案，实验技术，天体物理应用以及这种方法的未来前景。$\alpha$-团簇转移反应。