Collective plasma corrections to thermonuclear reaction rates in dense plasmas

Abstract

General kinetic equations are derived for nuclear reactions in dense plasmas by taking into account first-order collective plasma effects. We show that, apart from the corrections proportional to the product of the charges Z i and Z j of two reacting nuclei i and j, new corrections comparable in magnitude and proportional to the squares of the nuclear charges Z i 2 and Z j 2 arise. The Salpeter corrections [1] to the nuclear reaction probabilities due to the plasma screening of the interaction potential are shown to be at least a factor of r/d (r is the nuclear size and d is the Debye screening length) smaller than those assumed previously. These are zero in the approximation where the terms of order r/d are disregarded. The correlation corrections proportional to Z iZj have a different physical meaning than those in [1], can have a different sign, and arise for reactions with zero Salpeter corrections. For the correlation corrections that substitute for the previously used Salpeter corrections, strong correlations are difficult to describe analytically. The interpolation formulas between weak and strong Salpeter screenings previously used in many astrophysical applications are inapplicable, because the interpolation formulas between weak and strong correlations cannot yet be obtained. We found a new type of corrections that are proportional to the squares of the charges of reacting nuclei. These are attributable to a change in the collective electrostatic self-energy of the plasma system during nuclear reactions. Plasma corrections for the hydrogen-cycle nuclear reactions are numerically calculated for the temperature, density, and abundances in the solar interior.