Checking the Salpeter enhancement of nuclear reactions at intermediate coupling in asymmetric mixtures

We investigate the plasma enhancement of nuclear reactions in the intermediate coupling regime using orbital free molecular dynamics (OFMD) simulations. Mixtures of H-Cu and H-Ag serve as prototypes of simultaneous weak and strong couplings due to the charge asymmetry. Of particular importance is th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2019-01, Vol.26 (1)
Main Authors: Clérouin, Jean, Arnault, Philippe, Desbiens, Nicolas, White, Alexander J., Collins, Lee A., Kress, Joel D., Ticknor, Christopher
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Computer simulation
Copper
Coupling (molecular)
Couplings
Interpolation
Ionization
Low concentrations
Molecular dynamics
Nuclear reactions
Plasma physics
Silver
Simulation
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Summary:We investigate the plasma enhancement of nuclear reactions in the intermediate coupling regime using orbital free molecular dynamics (OFMD) simulations. Mixtures of H-Cu and H-Ag serve as prototypes of simultaneous weak and strong couplings due to the charge asymmetry. Of particular importance is the partial ionization of Cu and Ag and the free electron polarization captured by OFMD simulations. By comparing a series of OFMD simulations at various concentrations and constant pressure to multi-component hyper-netted chain (MCHNC) calculations of effective binary ionic mixtures, we set a general procedure for computing enhancement factors. The MCHNC procedure allows extension to very low concentrations (5% or less) and to very high temperatures (few keV) unreachable by the simulations. Enhancement factors for nuclear reaction rates extracted from the MCHNC approach are compared with the Salpeter theory in the weak and strong coupling regimes, and a new interpolation is proposed.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.5065464