arXiv:nucl-th/9702045·v1·Nuclear Theory
Vacuum polarization Contribution to the Astrophysical S-Factor
A.B. Balantekin (University of Wisconsin, Department of Physics, Madison, WI, USA) C. A. Bertulani (Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) M.S. Hussein (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Instituto de Fisica, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Abstract
We study the effect of vacuum polarization in nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest. This effect has the opposite sign compared to the screening by the atomic electrons. It is shown that vacuum polarization further increases the longstanding differences between the experimental data of astrophysical nuclear reactions at very low energies and the theoretical calculations which aim to include electron screening, albeit by a small amount.
Comments: RevTex, 7 pages, 1 figure; Email: baha@nucth.physics.wisc.edu, bertu@if.ufrj.br, hussein@if.usp.br