The Current State of the Controversy over Screening in Nuclear Reactions

Abstract

A controversy about the possibility of dynamic effects in nuclear screening has been around for several decades. On the one hand, there is the claim that there are no dynamic effects, and that the classic Salpeter correction based on static Debye screening is all that is needed for astrophysical applications. The size of the correction is on the order of 5% in typical solar fusion reactions. On the other hand, numerical simulations have shown that there is a dynamical effect, which essentially cancels the Salpeter correction. The results of the numerical simulations were later independently confirmed. The astrophysical community, however, has so far largely ignored the possibility of dynamical screening. The present paper is meant to serve as a reminder of the controversy. Not only does the claim of an absence of a dynamical effect equally warrant an independent confirmation, but there is motivation for further investigation, such as the assessment of current laboratory experiments and a quantitative study of the dynamical effect in case it will turn out to be real.