From: Dickey, Michael F (michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com)
Date: Fri Aug 30 2002 - 12:41:54 MDT
"Quantum tunneling would not be a factor far from any radiation source."
What does that have to do with quantum tunneling? As far as I understood
it, quantum tunneling was a random fluctuation through energy barriers.
Confine a particle enough and it will quantum tunnel out of its cage.
Protons at the center of the sun are not pushed together strong enough by
the gravitation forces in the sun or the pressure to actually overcome thier
mutual electric repulsion (something like 270 newtons on each proton at the
distance on 1 proton) and fuse together, they rely on the statistical
likelyhood of small particles quantum tunneling past small energy barriers
to run the start of the proton proton fusion chain. Such quantum tunneling
happens with or without the presence of radiation.
Michael
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