Energy Sources in Stars (§10.3)
Energy Sources in Stars (§10.3)
Energy Sources in Stars (§10.3)
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Can Fusion Occur <strong>in</strong> Sun’s s Core?Can we be helped by consider<strong>in</strong>g the distribution of energies? - notall protons will have just E th = 3/2 kTProton velocities are distributed accord<strong>in</strong>g to the Maxwellianequation: P(v) = 4π(m/24(m/2πkT)3/2 v 2 e -mv2 /2kTAt the high energy tail of the Maxwellian distribution, the relativenumber of protons, with E > 10 3 x E th is:N(E coulomb ~ 10 3 )/N() ~ e -ΔE/kt~ e -1000 = 10 -430 !!Number protons <strong>in</strong> Sun = M sun /M H ~ 10 57 so 1 <strong>in</strong> 10 430 of thesewill have enough energy to overcome Coulomb barrier.So aga<strong>in</strong>, no nuclear reactions??
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