The electron screening in OH-->F transition both for bound and scattering states

Abstract

We estimate the nuclear fusion rates for the transition OH-->F from the ground and excited molecular states and also consider effect of screening of electric charges of nuclei by bound electrons in the case of colliding atoms O and H. We show that the fusion rate for the molecular state is vanishingly small while the electron screening drastically changes the rate for the colliding atoms at kinetic energies up to hundreds of keV. The latter may be of consequence for some astrophysical applications.