Screening corrections in cold deuterium fusion rates

Abstract

We have recalculated the fusion rates of the free deuterium molecule, ion and mesomolecule taking into account the shielding of the Coulomb barrier by the electrons and muon. Electron screening increases the rates by several orders of magnitude.

The fusion of hydrogen nuclei is known to be the source of energy of stars occuring in their high-temperature, high-pressure interiors. In terrestrial conditions, one attempts currently to tap this source of nuclear fusion energy by alternative techniques, i.e. high-temperature plasmas or muon-catalyzed fusion. Very recently cold fusion in solids has achieved worldwide attention, since experimental evidence for increased hydrogenic fusion rates in palladium and titanium has been reported[1,2]. These reports have motivated us to reconsider the fusion probability of free hydrogen molecules, ions and mesomolecules, following closely the studies of Refs. [3,4,5]. Our aim however is to improve the previous estimates of the respective fusion rates by taking account of the screening effects of the electrons and muons on the nuclear Coulomb barrier which will turn out to be quite important. As in Ref. [5] we will restrict our numerical results to deuterium only.