On the rates of breakup reactions in the solar interior

Highlights: • Fast protons produced in solar reactions strongly enhance the breakups of loosely bound nuclei in the solar core plasma. • The breakup rates can exceed the rates of some other reactions in the plasma by several orders of magnitude. • The breakup rates are insufficiently high to affect the abundances of neutrino-generating nuclides. The breakups of loosely bound d, ⁷Li, ⁷Be, and ⁸B nuclei in the solar core plasma caused by fast reaction-produced protons are examined. It is obtained that protons produced in the ${}_3\mathrm{He}({}_3\mathrm{He},2p)\alpha$ reaction can radically enhance these breakups, providing their rates at an appreciable level. The most significant effect is marked for the ${}_7\mathrm{Be}(p,p\alpha ){}_3\mathrm{He}$ reaction whose rate can exceed the rates of some other channels of ⁷Be depletion in the plasma by several orders of magnitude. At the same time, the breakup rates are found to be insufficiently high to affect the abundances of neutrino-generating nuclides.