• Energy Research

We summarize and critically evaluate the available data on nuclear fusion cross sections important to energy generation in the Sun and other hydrogen-burning stars and to solar neutrino production. Recommended values and uncertainties are provided for key cross sections, and a recommended spectrum is given for 8B solar neutrinos. We also discuss opportunities for further increasing the precision of key rates, including new facilities, new experimental techniques, and improvements in theory. This review, which summarizes the conclusions of a workshop held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, in January 2009, is intended as a 10-year update and supplement to Reviews of Modern Physics 70 (1998) 1265. 54 pages, 20 figures, version to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics; various typos corrected and several updates made

The astrophysically important 7Li(p, α)α reaction has been studied via the Trojan horse method in the energy range E = 10-400 keV. A new theoretical description, based on the distorted-wave Born approximation approach, allows one to extract information on the bare astrophysical S-factor, Sb(E), with Sb(0) = 55 ± 3 keV barns. The results are compared with direct experimental data leading to a model-independent value of the electron screening potential energy, Ue = 330 ± 40 eV, much higher than the adiabatic limit Uad = 175 eV.