Cross sections and rates of resonant thermonuclear reactions

Rates and cross sections using a composite nucleus model are mathematically investigated for the 3H(d, n)4He and 3He(d, p)4He reactions. It is shown that, by using a more accurate calculation of the permeability factor of the Coulomb barrier and by taking into account the energy dependence of the total resonance width, the addition to the single-resonance contribution to the reduced nuclear cross section may be regarded as constant in the energy range E less than 10 MeV. Numerical integration of the reaction cross sections with a Maxwell distribution leads to curves of the temperature dependence of the reaction rate. Analytical expressions are derived for the temperature dependence of the reaction rate in the T less than 1 MeV range