Nuclear Fusion Enhancement by Heavy Nuclear Catalysts

TL;DR

This paper investigates how heavy nuclear catalysts like gold can significantly enhance fusion reaction rates in hot plasmas by altering internuclear potentials through dense electron polarization.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative analysis of heavy nucleus catalysts, especially gold, demonstrating their impact on fusion rates via strong plasma screening effects.

Findings

Gold causes a 14 keV change in internuclear potential.

Fusion enhancement of ~1.5 times for proton-boron at >100 keV.

Effect is independent of Debye-Hückel screening.

Abstract

We seek to understand the effect of high electron density in the proximity of a heavy nucleus on the fusion reaction rates in a hot plasma phase. We investigate quantitatively the catalytic effect of gold ($Z=79$) ions embedded in an electron plasma created due to plasmonic focusing of high-intensity short laser pulses. Using self-consistent strong plasma screening, we find highly significant changes in the internuclear potential of light elements present nearby. For gold, we see a $14\,$keV change in the internuclear potential near the nuclear surface, independent of the long-distance thermal Debye-H\"uckel screening. The dense polarization cloud of electrons around the gold catalyst leads to a $\sim 1.5$ enhancement of proton-boron ($^{11}$B) fusion above $T=100\,$keV.