Related papers: Fusion hindrance effects in laser-induced non-neut…
Although the energies associated with nuclear reactions are due primarily to interactions involving nuclear forces, the rates and probabilities associated with those reactions are effectively governed by electromagnetic forces. Charges in…
A reliable description of nuclear fusion reactions in inner layers of white dwarfs and envelopes of neutron stars is important for realistic modelling of a wide range of observable astrophysical phenomena from accreting neutron stars to…
Modification of nuclear reactions due to impurities in plasma is investigated. The hindering effect of Coulomb repulsion between reacting particles, that is effective in direct reactions, can practically disappear if Coulomb interaction of…
We analyze the effect of plasma screening on nuclear reaction rates in dense matter composed of atomic nuclei of one or two types. We perform semiclassical calculations of the Coulomb barrier penetrability taking into account a radial mean…
At low energies, nuclear fusion is strongly affected by electron screening of the Coulomb repulsion among the fusing nuclei. It may thus be possible to catalyze nuclear fusion in molecules (i.e., to fuse specific nuclei in situ) through…
In conventional nuclear experiments a beam of accelerated nuclei collides with a target nucleus that is surrounded by other nuclei in a molecule, in condensed matter, or in a plasma environment. It is shown that for low collision energies…
The problem of determining the effects of the surrounding plasma on nuclear reaction rates in stars is formulated ab initio, using the techniques of quantum statistical mechanics. We derive a result that expresses the complete effects of…
Due to screening effects, nuclear reactions in astrophysical plasmas may behave differently than in the laboratory. The possibility to determine the magnitude of these screening effects in colliding laser-generated plasmas is investigated…
Nuclear fusion requires overcoming or traversing a repulsive Coulomb barrier of hundreds of kiloelectronvolts, rendering the probability of fusion at sub-keV energies vanishingly small. Yet in condensed matter, the electronic and structural…
In fusion reactions, the Coulomb barrier selects particles from the high-momentum part of the distribution. Therefore, small variations of the high-momentum tail of the velocity distribution can produce strong effects on fusion rates. In…
A profusion of unbound, low-energy electrons creates a local electric field that reduces Coulomb potential and increases quantum tunneling probability for pairs of nuclei. Neutral beam-target experiments on deuterium-deuterium fusion…
An approach to achieve nuclear fusion utilizing the formation of high densities of electrons and neutrals is described. The profusion of low energy electrons provides high dynamic electric fields that help reduce the Coulomb barrier in…
The electron-screening acceleration of laboratory fusion reactions at astrophysical energies is an unsolved problem of great importance to astrophysics. That effect is modeled here by considering the fusion of hydrogen-like atoms whose…
Relativistic mean field calculations suggest that the charge and matter deformations significantly differ in some of the unstable neutron and proton rich nuclei. We discuss the effects of the difference on the fusion reactions induced by…
Coulomb screening and weak interactions in a hot, magnetized plasma are investigated. Coulomb screening is evaluated in a relativistic thermal plasma in which electrons and positrons are in equilibrium. In addition to temperature effects,…
To explain the experimental facts that the fusion cross sections of proton-halo nucleus on heavy target nucleus is not enhanced as expected, the shielding supposition has been proposed. Namely, the proton-halo nucleus is polarized with the…
The scaling of reaction yields in light ion fusion to low reaction energies is important for our understanding of stellar fuel chains and the development of future energy technologies. Experiments become progressively more challenging at…
The mechanism of fusion hindrance, an effect preventing the synthesis of superheavy elements in the reactions of cold and hot fusion, is investigated using the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation, where Coulomb interaction is introduced. A…
We propose a new mechanism to explain the unexpected steep falloff of fusion cross sections at energies far below the Coulomb barrier. The saturation properties of nuclear matter are causing a hindrance to large overlap of the reacting…
Fusion of two deuterons of room temperature energy is studied. The nuclei are in vacuum with no connection to any external source (electric or magnetic field, illumination, surrounding matter, traps, etc.) which may accelerate them. The…