FUSION REACTIONS IN MOLECULES VIA NUCLEAR THRESHOLD RESONANCES

It is widely accepted that in molecular systems the nuclear interactio n plays a negligible role, because of the strong Coulomb repulsion of the nuclei at small distances. We are going to show that this is not a lways true. The existence of an extended nuclear resonance may bad to considerably enhanced nuclear reaction rates in appropriately prepared molecules. Especially we point out that p + p + O-16, i.e. the consti tuents of water, can form a Ne-18(1(-)) threshold resonance which deca ys under energy release into F-17 and a proton.