Strong plasma screening in thermonuclear reactions: Electron drop model

Abstract

We analyze enhancement of thermonuclear fusion reactions due to strong plasma screening in dense matter using a simple electron drop model. The model assumes fusion in a potential that is screened by an effective electron cloud around colliding nuclei (extended Salpeter ion-sphere model). We calculate the mean field screened Coulomb potentials for atomic nuclei with equal and nonequal charges, appropriate astrophysical S factors, and enhancement factors of reaction rates. As a byproduct, we study analytic behavior of the screening potential at small separations between the reactants. In this model, astrophysical S factors depend not only on nuclear physics but on plasma screening as well. The enhancement factors are in good agreement with calculations by other methods. This allows us to formulate the combined, pure analytic model of strong plasma screening in thermonuclear reactions. The results can be useful for simulating nuclear burning in white dwarfs and neutron stars.

15 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Study of the 12C+12C fusion reactions near the Gamow energy
• Coulomb tunneling for fusion reactions in dense matter: Path integral Monte Carlo versus mean field
• A simple analytic model for astrophysical S-factors
• Equation of state of classical Coulomb plasma mixtures
• Nuclear fusion reaction rates for strongly coupled ionic mixtures

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Self-consistent strong screening applied to thermonuclear reactions
• Synthesis of elements in compact stars in pycnonuclear reactions with Carbon isotopes: Quasibound states versus states of zero-points vibrations
• Do not forget the electrons: Extending moderately-sized nuclear networks for multidimensional hydrodynamic codes
• The impact of new ($\alpha$, n) reaction rates on the weak s-process in metal-poor massive stars
• Quarks to Cosmos: Particles and Plasma in Cosmological evolution
• Relativistic Coulomb Screening in Pulsational Pair Instability Supernovae
• Nuclear Fusion Enhancement by Heavy Nuclear Catalysts