Nuclear fusion reaction in the Sun

This figure is Fig. 2 from the RMP paper by Adelberger et al. (1998) and is adapted from Fig. 9 of Junker et al. (1998), a recent paper by the LUNA Collaboration. The measured cross-section factor S(E) for the 3He (3He, 2p)4He reaction is shown and a fit with a screening potential is illustrated. The Gamow peak at the solar central temperature is shown in arbitrary units. The data shown here correspond to a bare nucleus value at zero energy of S(0) = 5.4 MeV b and a value at the Gamow peak of (Gamow Peak) = 5.3 MeV b.

Nuclear fusion reactions in the sun

The figure shows the principal reactions in the pp fusion chain in the sun. The BP2000 solar model was used to calculate the fraction of the terminations of the chain in which a given reaction participates. The neutrino energies contain small corrections due to thermal phenomena in the Sun.
Postscript file pdf file

The luminosity constraint on solar neutrino fluxes
Author(s): John N. Bahcall
Journal: Phys. Rev. C., 65 (January 2002), 025801, hep-ph/0108148.Abstract: A specific linear combination of the total solar neutrino fluxes must equal the measured solar photon luminosity if nuclear fusion reactions among light elements are responsible for solar energy generation. This luminosity constraint, previously used in a limited form in testing the no neutrino oscillation hypothesis, is derived in a generality that includes all of the relevant solar neutrino fluxes and which is suitable for analyzing the results of many different solar neutrino experiments. With or without allowing for neutrino oscillations, the generalized luminosity constraint can be used in future analyses of solar neutrino data. Accurate numerical values for the linear coefficients are provided. Solar Fusion Cross Sections