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Title: Thermonuclear fusion rates for tritium + deuterium using Bayesian methods

Journal Article · · Physical Review C
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  2. Univ. Paris-Saclay, Orsay Campus (France)
  3. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), Durham, NC (United State)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The 3H(d, n) 4He reaction has a large low-energy cross section and will likely be utilized in future commercial fusion reactors. This reaction also takes place during Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Studies of both scenarios require accurate and precise fusion rates. To this end, we implement a one-level, two-channel R-matrix approximation into a Bayesian model. Our main goals are to predict reliable astrophysical S-factors and to estimate R-matrix parameters using the Bayesian approach. All relevant parameters are sampled in our study, including the channel radii, boundary condition parameters, and data set normalization factors. In addition, we take uncertainties in both measured bombarding energies and S-factors rigorously into account. Thermonuclear rates and reactivities of the 3H(d, n) 4He reaction are derived by numerically integrating the Bayesian S-factor samples. The present reaction rate uncertainties at temperatures between 1.0 MK and 1.0 GK are in the range of 0.2% to 0.6%. Our reaction rates differ from previous results by 2.9% near 1.0 GK.Our reactivities are smaller than previous results, with a maximum deviation of 2.9% near a thermal energy of 4 keV. The present rate or reactivity uncertainties are more reliable compared to previous studies that did not include the channel radii, boundary condition parameters, and data set normalization factors in the fitting. Finally, we investigate previous claims of electron screening effects in the published 3H(d, n) 4He data. No such effects are evident and only an upper limit for the electron screening potential can be obtained.

Research Organization:
Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-97ER41033; FG02-97ER41041; 14-ATP14-0007
OSTI ID:
1610381
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1491608; OSTI ID: 1658835
Journal Information:
Physical Review C, Vol. 99, Issue 1; ISSN 2469-9985
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

Stress testing the dark energy equation of state imprint on supernova data journal June 2019

Figures / Tables (17)

FIG. 1(p. 3)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 8)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 10)figure FIG. 3
FIG. 4(p. 10)figure FIG. 4
FIG. 5(p. 11)figure FIG. 5
FIG. 6(p. 11)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 12)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 13)figure FIG. 8
TABLE I(p. 16)table TABLE I
TABLE II(p. 16)table TABLE II
TABLE III(p. 17)table TABLE III
TABLE IV(p. 17)table TABLE IV
TABLE V(p. 17)table TABLE V
TABLE VI(p. 17)table TABLE VI
TABLE VII(p. 18)table TABLE VII
TABLE VIII(p. 18)table TABLE VIII
TABLE IX(p. 19)table TABLE IX

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Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
physics
nuclear fusion
resonance reactions
Bayesian methods
statistical methods