Reaction Rates in Quasiequilibrium States

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Ourabah, Kamel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ourabah, Kamel
author_facet Ourabah, Kamel
contents Non-Maxwellian distributions are commonly observed across a wide range of systems and scales. While direct observations provide the strongest evidence for these distributions, they also manifest indirectly through their influence on processes and quantities that strongly depend on the energy distribution, such as reaction rates. In this paper, we investigate reaction rates in the general context of quasiequilibrium systems, which exhibit only local equilibrium. The hierarchical structure of these systems allows their statistical properties to be represented as a superposition of statistics, i.e., superstatistics. Focusing on the three universality classes of superstatistics--$χ^2$, inverse-$χ^2$, and log-normal--we examine how these nonequilibrium distributions influence reaction rates. We analyze, both analytically and numerically, reaction rates for processes involving tunneling phenomena, such as fusion, and identify conditions under which quasiequilibrium distributions outperform Maxwellian distributions in enhancing fusion reactivities. To provide a more detailed quantitative analysis, we further employ semi-empirical cross sections to evaluate the effect of these nonequilibrium distributions on ionization and recombination rates in a plasma.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_10407
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reaction Rates in Quasiequilibrium States
Ourabah, Kamel
Statistical Mechanics
Non-Maxwellian distributions are commonly observed across a wide range of systems and scales. While direct observations provide the strongest evidence for these distributions, they also manifest indirectly through their influence on processes and quantities that strongly depend on the energy distribution, such as reaction rates. In this paper, we investigate reaction rates in the general context of quasiequilibrium systems, which exhibit only local equilibrium. The hierarchical structure of these systems allows their statistical properties to be represented as a superposition of statistics, i.e., superstatistics. Focusing on the three universality classes of superstatistics--$χ^2$, inverse-$χ^2$, and log-normal--we examine how these nonequilibrium distributions influence reaction rates. We analyze, both analytically and numerically, reaction rates for processes involving tunneling phenomena, such as fusion, and identify conditions under which quasiequilibrium distributions outperform Maxwellian distributions in enhancing fusion reactivities. To provide a more detailed quantitative analysis, we further employ semi-empirical cross sections to evaluate the effect of these nonequilibrium distributions on ionization and recombination rates in a plasma.
title Reaction Rates in Quasiequilibrium States
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10407