The electron screening puzzle and nuclear clustering

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physics Letters B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.02.019· OSTI ID:1476950

Spitaleri, C. ; Bertulani, C. A. ; Fortunato, L.; Vitturi, A.

Accurate measurements of nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest within, or close to, the Gamow peak show evidence of an unexpected effect attributed to the presence of atomic electrons in the target. The experiments need to include an effective "screening" potential to explain the enhancement of the cross sections at the lowest measurable energies. Despite various theoretical studies conducted over the past 20 years and numerous experimental measurements, a theory has not yet been found that can explain the cause of the exceedingly high values of the screening potential needed to explain the data. Furthermore, in this letter we show that instead of an atomic physics solution of the "electron screening puzzle", the reason for the large screening potential values is in fact due to clusterization effects in nuclear reactions, in particular for reaction involving light nuclei.

• Research Organization: Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Italian Ministry of University MIUR
• Grant/Contract Number: FG02-08ER41533
• OSTI ID: 1476950
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1262219
• Journal Information: Physics Letters B, Journal Name: Physics Letters B Vol. 755 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0370-2693
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: Netherlands
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
fusion reactions
dependence