On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 9:33 PM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote:
I would not expect to see He4 formed directly by the proton addition to > He3 because the binding energy would tear it apart unless it is released > quickly. Every viable fusion reaction that has He4 as a final product > releases one or more large nucleons(proton, neutron or alpha) that help > carry away the binding energy. > Here's a nice graphic that gives a breakdown of the branching ratios: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Proton_proton_cycle.png It looks like 3He + p -> 4He + e+ + v happens 0.23e-5 percent of the time. Eric
