Non-adiabatic effect in electron screening in fusion reactions at astrophysical energies

Abstract

We calculate the electron screening effect in low energy nuclear fusion reactions by taking non-adiabaticity of the tunnleing process into account. In order to investigate deviations from the adiabatic limit, we use the dynamical norm method, which has recently been developed by the present authors. Using $d$+D reaction as an example, we show that the screening energy never exceeds those estimated in the adiabatic approximation. Our calculations indicate that the non-adiabatic effect is important both in classically allowed and classically forbidden processes.