Enhanced Pycnonuclear Reactions in Ultrahigh-Pressure Metals

Abstract

By combining the concepts of pycnonuclear reactions at low temperatures and their enhancement due to strong internuclear Coulomb correlations, we predict the possibilities of a novel scheme for fusion in ultrahigh-pressure liquid-metallic hydrogen near the freezing conditions, for the reactions ²H(p, , γ )³He, ³H(d, , n)⁴He, and ⁷Li(p, , α )⁴He. Time evolution is followed for p-d reaction after a pulsed compression with 1, kJ input and the initial conditions of mass density≈ 20, g/cm³, temperature≈ 1400, K, pressure≈ 490, Mbar, and radius≈ 0.017, cm; an energy yield of 33, kJ in 0.03, fs is thus predicted.