Eur. Phys. J. B 50, 11-15 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00143-8

Fusion reactions in plasmas as probe of the high-momentum tail of particle distributions

¹ Ist. Naz. Fisica Nucleare (I.N.F.N.) Cagliari, 09042 Monserrato, Italy and Dipart. di Fisica dell'Università di Cagliari, 09042 Monserrato, Italy
² Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, C. so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy and Ist. Naz. Fisica Nucleare (I.N.F.N.) Cagliari, 09042 Monserrato, Italy

Corresponding authors: ^a massimo.coraddu@ca.infn.it - ^b marcello.lissia@ca.infn.it - ^c giuseppe.mezzorani@ca.infn.it - ^d piero.quarati@polito.it

Received: 29 November 2005
Revised: 14 December 2005
Published online: 12 April 2006

Abstract

In fusion reactions, the Coulomb barrier selects particles from the high-momentum part of the distribution. Therefore, small variations of the high-momentum tail of the velocity distribution can produce strong effects on fusion rates. In plasmas several potential mechanisms exist that can produce deviations from the standard Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Quantum broadening of the energy-momentum dispersion relation of the plasma quasi-particles modifies the high-momentum tail and could explain the fusion-rate enhancement observed in low-energy nuclear reaction experiments.