Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

In this work a newly proposed approach to study nuclear reactions relevant for nucleosynthesis under plasma conditions resembling astrophysical sites is investigated from a theoretical point of view. The scheme under investigation makes use of intense optical lasers to accelerate ions via the target normal sheath acceleration scheme. The ions produce nuclear reactions in a second laser-induced target plasma. We describe this process with the help of a fluid model for plasma expansion and take into account the effect of electron screening of the nuclear reaction in the target plasma. In particular, we estimate the neutron yield of the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction in the laser experimental scenario. This reaction might be the key to explain the remaining lithium production problem of standard big bang nucleosynthesis. The predicted yields show that the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴reaction in plasma should be observable for the first time ina laboratory experiment under laser parameters available today.