Self-consistent strong screening applied to thermonuclear reactions
arXiv:2406.13055 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad7dee
Abstract
Self-consistent strong plasma screening around light nuclei is implemented in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch to determine the short-range screening potential, , relevant for thermonuclear reactions. We numerically solve the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation incorporating Fermi-Dirac statistics adopting a generalized screening mass to find the electric potential in the cosmic BBN electron-positron plasma for finite-sized He nuclei as an example. Although the plasma follows Boltzmann statistics at large distances, Fermi-Dirac statistics is necessary when work performed by ions on electrons is comparable to their rest mass energy. While strong screening effects are generally minor due to the high BBN temperatures, they can enhance the fusion rates of high- elements while leaving fusion rates of lower- elements relatively unaffected. Our results also reveal a pronounced spatial dependence of the strong screening potential near the nuclear surface. These findings about the electron-positron plasma's role refine BBN theory predictions and offer broader applications for studying weakly coupled plasmas in diverse cosmic and laboratory settings.
16 pages, 5 figures, typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX631
References in corpus (22)
- Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions
- Standard Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis up to CNO with an improved extended nuclear network
- Coulomb tunneling for fusion reactions in dense matter: Path integral Monte Carlo versus mean field
- Screening in Thermonuclear Reaction Rates in the Sun
- Heavy Quarks Embedded in Glasma
- Heavy Quarks in Turbulent QCD Plasmas
- Electron screening and its effects on Big-Bang nucleosynthesis
- On electrostatic screening of ions in astrophysical plasmas
- Dynamic Screening and Thermonuclear Reaction Rates
- Nuclear fusion reaction rates for strongly coupled ionic mixtures
- Low-lying Resonances and Relativistic Screening in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- Dynamic Screening in Thermonuclear Reactions
- Strong plasma screening in thermonuclear reactions: Electron drop model
- Analysis of the Multi-component Relativistic Boltzmann Equation for Electron Scattering in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- Relativistic Electron Scattering and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- A short survey of matter-antimatter evolution in the primordial universe
- Screening corrections to Electron Capture Rates and resulting constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields
- The Hoyle Family: The search for alpha-condensate states in light nuclei
- Quantum effects on plasma screening for thermonuclear reactions in laser-generated plasmas
- Dynamical Screening of - Resonant Scattering and Thermal Nuclear Scattering Rate in a Plasma
- Weakly screened thermonuclear reactions in astrophysical plasmas: Improving Salpeter's model
- Fermi-Dirac Integrals in Degenerate Regimes: A Novel Asymptotic Expansion