Thermonuclear fusion and generalized Gamow penetrability factor in intense laser fields

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how intense laser fields can modify thermonuclear fusion cross-sections, providing a generalized Gamow penetrability factor and showing increased sensitivity at lower energies.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized Gamow penetrability factor to predict laser-induced effects on nuclear fusion processes in intense laser fields.

Findings

Cross-sections are more sensitive to laser fields at lower energies.

Provides quantitative predictions for laser-induced modifications to fusion cross-sections.

Derives a generalized form of the Gamow penetrability factor for similar nuclear processes.

Abstract

A theoretical study on thermonuclear fusion including deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion and D-$^{3}$He fusion in intense laser fields has been shown in this article. With the laser fields expected to be available in the near future, some quantitative results for the laser-induced modifications to the cross-sections are given. It is reported that the cross-sections are more sensitive to the external laser fields at the lower energies. An explicit generalized form of the Gamow penetrability factor is given for the predictions of the laser-induced effects for some other similar nuclear processes.