Microfields and fusion rates for dense plasmas

In the first part nonideality effects on reaction rates are studied from a thermodynamical point of view. In the following part the microscopic dynamics and the influence of microfields is studied and several new results referring to the spectra of the fields and their influence of the fusion dynamics are obtained. A semiclassical version of the theory of fusion rates is developed. It is shown that the rates of tunneling depend crucially on the random microfields acting on the reacting nuclei. By introducing the results for the microfields into the semiclassical theory of reaction rates new expressions for the rates of fusion reactions are obtained, which include the effect of average forces and of random fields. It is shown that the new effect of random microfields may lead to drastic enhancement of fusion for special astrophysical objects.