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Non-radiative synthesis of Be7 in solar plasma

N. V. Shevchenko, S. A. Rakityansky, S. A. Sofianos, V. B. Belyaev

nucl-tharXiv:nucl-th/9804020

Abstract

The nuclear reaction e + He3 + He4 ---> e + Be7 is considered at thermonuclear energies. The motion of the electron is treated within the adiabatic approximation and the He3-He4 scattering state is calculated using an effective He3-He4 potential constructed via the Marchenko inverse scattering method. The reaction rate thus obtained for solar interior conditions is approximately 10-4 of the corresponding rate for the radiative capture He3 + He4 ----> Be7 + gamma. However, at the conditions corresponding to the early stages of the primordial nucleosynthesis, the non-radiative fusion is five times faster than the radiative one. The importance of the non-radiative processes for the energy balance in the sun, which for electrons is totally opaque, is discussed.

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