Abstract
The rate of nuclear fusion reaction, which is proportional to the tunnel-contact probability of a reacting pair of nuclei, is enhanced significantly in dense stellar matter by the many-body correlations of the surrounding nuclei. Path-integral Monte Carlo calculations for the contact probabilities of a tunnelling pair in a dense Coulomb liquid of nuclei, an accurate model for the matter in the interiors and on the surfaces of white dwarfs and neutron stars, are performed to investigate quantum effects of the surrounding nuclei. We show that the probabilities are enhanced significantly by the wave-mechanical spreading of the surrounding nuclei. Exchange of the Bose nuclei alters the probability by negligible amounts for conditions of astrophysical interest.
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