Pycnonuclear Fusion Rates
Abstract
Pycnonuclear fusion processes in an ionic crystal at zero temperature are discussed. Rearrangement effects of the lattice during the fusion process are accounted for exactly in the screening potential by computing the relaxation of the surrounding nuclei. The dynamics of the rearranging ions also generates an increased effective mass that must be used in describing the tunneling of the fusing nuclei. The opposing effects of lattice polarization through enhanced screening and the effective mass results in pycnonuclear reaction rates that are several orders of magnitude smaller than those calculated in the Wigner-Seitz approximation and are roughly equal to those obtained in the static approximation that neglects polarization entirely.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 1990
- DOI:
- 10.1086/169482
- Bibcode:
- 1990ApJ...365..296S
- Keywords:
-
- Crystal Lattices;
- Ionic Crystals;
- Neutron Stars;
- Nuclear Astrophysics;
- Nuclear Fusion;
- Body Centered Cubic Lattices;
- Face Centered Cubic Lattices;
- Reaction Kinetics;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Astrophysics;
- NUCLEAR REACTIONS;
- STARS: NEUTRON;
- STARS: WHITE DWARFS