Journal
PROGRESS OF THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS
Volume 2020, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/ptep/ptaa093
Keywords
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Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI [18K03635, 18H01211, 18H04569, 18H05406, 19H05140]
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo-FAPESP [2019/00153-8]
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico-CNPq [303579/2019-6]
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The triple-alpha reaction is key to C production and is expected to occur in weakly coupled thermal plasmas as encountered in normal stars. We investigate how Coulomb screening affects the structure of a system of three alpha particles in such a plasma environment by precise three-body calculations within the Debye-Huckel approximation. A three-alpha model that has the Coulomb interaction modified in the Yukawa form is employed. Precise three-body wave functions are obtained by a superposition of correlated Gaussian basis with the aid of the stochastic variational method. The energy shifts of the Hoyle state due to the Coulomb screening are obtained as a function of the Debye screening length. The results, which automatically incorporate the finite-size effect of the Hoyle state, are consistent with the conventional result based on the Coulomb correction to the chemical potentials of ions that are regarded as point charges in a weakly coupled thermal plasma. We have given a theoretical basis to the conventional point-charge approach to the Coulomb screening problem relevant for nuclear reactions in normal stars by providing the first evaluation of the Coulomb corrections to the value of the triple-alpha process that produces a finite-size Hoyle state.
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