Modified Debye‐Huckel Electron Shielding and Penetration Factor

Abstract

A screened potential modified by nonstandard electron cloud distributions, which are responsible for the shielding effect on fusion of reacting nuclei in astrophysical plasmas, is derived. The case of clouds with depleted tails in space coordinates is discussed. The modified screened potential is obtained both from statistical mechanics arguments based on fluctuations of the inverse of the Debye-Hückel radius and from the solution of a Bernoulli equation used in generalized statistical mechanics. Plots and tables useful for evaluating the penetration probability at any energy are provided. © 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.