Gamow peak approximation near strong resonances

TL;DR

This paper refines the concept of the Gamow peak to account for resonant reactions with energy-dependent S-factors, impacting astrophysical and laser-driven nuclear reaction modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a modified effective energy range for charged particle reactions near strong resonances, improving upon the traditional Gamow peak approximation.

Findings

Modified energy range differs significantly from the classical Gamow peak in resonant cases.

Implications for stellar nucleosynthesis modeling at high temperatures.

Relevance to nuclear reactions induced by ultra-intense laser pulses.

Abstract

We discuss the most effective energy range for charged particle induced reactions in a plasma environment at a given plasma temperature. The correspondence between the plasma temperature and the most effective energy should be modified from the one given by the Gamow peak energy, in the presence of a significant incident-energy dependence in the astrophysical S-factor as in the case of resonant reactions. The suggested modification of the effective energy range is important not only in thermonuclear reactions at high temperature in the stellar environment, e.g., in advanced burning stages of massive stars and in explosive stellar environment, as it has been already claimed, but also in the application of the nuclear reactions driven by ultra-intense laser pulse irradiations.