Charged-particle induced thermonuclear reaction rates of light nuclei

Abstract

Thermonuclear reactions play an important role in providing the major source of energy in stars in particular during hydrogen burning. This burning process in the stellar interiors consists of the proton-proton chain and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle. In this work, we attempt to make a compilation of 15 non-resonant reactions using an improved calculation of the reaction rates. This improved formalism of the reaction rate de¯nes from the exact tunnelling probability. We derive the exact tunnelling probability from the WKB approximation method and from this probability we have an astrophysical S-factor that is valid for all energies. A new formula for the e®ective energy is formed from the Gamow peak. Instead of using the primitive probability that is widely used in calculating the reaction rates, this improved formulation gives signi¯cant di®erences compared with the primitive probability at high temperature. We then apply the reaction rates to evolve a solar model using the Geneva evolution code. This model produces the physical and chemical properties and also the solar neutrino which are consistent with observation.