Average Energy of Interacting Particles for Thermonuclear Reactions

Abstract

The average energy of the two interacting particles undergoing a thermonuclear reaction is given, and results are presented for selected thermonuclear reactions among the isotopes of hydrogen, helium, lithium, and boron. It is shown that the average energy is equal to 3kT when the relative reaction rate is a constant. This circumstance never occurs for charged-particle interactions because of the Coulomb barrier. The calculations show that the average energy is almost always >3kT, indicating both a depletion of the high-energy tail of the thermal distribution and an energy enhancement for the thermonuclear reaction products. For energy conservation, any model describing the kinematics of the reaction products for thermonuclear reactions should be consistent with the average total available energy, i.e., + Q.