Modification of Thermonuclear Reaction in the Astrophysical Plasma

Abstract

Studies on nucleosynthesis enable us to explore the abundance of the chemical elements in our universe. The nucleosynthesis sites are usually assumed to be ideal, the system that the equilibrium statistics and bare Coulomb potential of nuclei are applicable. However, it is still ambiguous whether the astrophysical plasma always stays in the ideal system despite the existence of collision effects and the collective motion of plasma constituents. Hence, we have studied the effects of astrophysical plasma on nuclear astrophysics. In this proceeding, we introduce two phenomena due to the collective motion of astrophysical plasmas. One is the electron screening effect for moving ions, which is referred to as the dynamical screening effect. The other is electromagnetic (EM) fluctuations that lead the EM spectrum to be changed. We present the enhancement for thermonuclear reaction rate due to the dynamical screening effect and change in EM spectrum due to EM fluctuations on astrophysical plasmas. On the basis of those results, we discuss the effects of astrophysical plasmas on thermonuclear reaction rates and changes in solar neutrino fluxes.