Dynamic screening in solar plasma

Abstract

In the hot, dense plasma of solar and stellar interiors, Coulomb potentials are screened, resulting in increased nuclear reaction rates. Although Salpeter's approximation for static screening is widely accepted and used in stellar modeling, the question of screening in nuclear reactions has been revisited. In particular the issue of dynamic effects has been raised by Shaviv and Shaviv who apply the techniques of molecular dynamics to the conditions in the Sun's core in order to numerically determine the effect of screening. By directly calculating the motion of ions and electrons due to Coulomb interactions, the simulations are used to compute the effect of screening without the mean-field assumption inherent in Salpeter's approximation. In this paper we reproduce their numerical analysis of the screening energy in the plasma of the solar core and conclude that the effects of dynamic screening are relevant and should be included when stellar nuclear reaction rates are computed.

15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

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