A contracting protostellar core briefly overshoots the Sun's central temperature and…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Nuclear Physics · Nuclear astrophysics and applications · Nuclear astrophysics and applications
Stars from the Inside, Ch Thermonuclear energy generation: reaction rates, burning stages and the elements they make
Problem
A contracting protostellar core briefly overshoots the Sun's central temperature and settles at T=2.0×107K, still burning by the p+p reaction, for which EG=493keV.
((a)) Find the Gamow peak energy E0.
((b)) Find the full width Δ of the peak.
((c)) Find τ=3E0/kBT and the temperature exponent ν=(τ−2)/3.