Electron Screening in Nuclear Astrophysics

Electron screening in an important effect that cannot be neglected in nuclear astrophysics, since it influences nuclear reaction cross sections at low energies. We are trying to understand why most measurements in inverse kinematics on solid targets give electron screening potentials more than an order of magnitude above predictions. Below we report our latest results on electron screening in nuclear reactions ¹H(¹⁴N,γ)¹⁵O and ²H(¹⁹F,ρ)²°F in both inverse and normal kinematics. The analysis is in progress.