Effect of screening on thermonuclear fusion in stellar and laboratory plasmas

The fusion-enhancement factor due to screening in the solar plasma is calcu lated. We use the finite-temperature Green's function method, and a self-co nsistent mean field approximation. We reduce this to one-center problems, b ecause in the collision of two fusing ions, the turning point when tunnelin g may occur lies far inside the screening radius. The numerical results giv en by this method indicate that screening may be slightly weaker than that obtained in the most recent previous calculations.