Breakdown of the Plane-Wave Trojan Horse Analysis of the ¹²C+¹²C Fusion Reaction: Critical Role of Coulomb Distortions

@misc{mukhamedzhanov2026breakdown,
  title = {{Breakdown of the Plane-Wave Trojan Horse Analysis of the $^12\mathrmC+^12\mathrmC$ Fusion Reaction: Critical Role of Coulomb Distortions}},
  author = {Akram Mukhamedzhanov},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.04498},
  eprint = {2609.04498},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04498},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Breakdown of the Plane-Wave Trojan Horse Analysis of the ^12C+^12C Fusion Reaction: Critical Role of Coulomb Distortions
AU  - Akram Mukhamedzhanov
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.04498
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04498
AB  - Recently, a new Trojan Horse Method (THM) measurement of carbon-carbon fusion was reported by Li \textit{et al.} [Phys. Lett. B (2026) 140675]. The purpose of the present work is to demonstrate the breakdown of the plane-wave approximation used in the analysis of these data and the critical role of Coulomb distortions in the initial and final states. The reaction mechanism underlying the THM analysis of the ^12C+^12C fusion reaction using the ^16O+^12C→ α_s+α+^20Ne reaction is investigated. Particular attention is paid to the spectator momentum distribution and to the dependence of the THM reaction amplitude on the relative carbon-carbon energy E. It is demonstrated that agreement with the measured spectator momentum distribution does not by itself validate the plane-wave approximation. Although the experimental momentum distribution can be reproduced, inclusion of Coulomb distortions in both the initial and final channels leads to an energy dependence of the THM amplitude that is completely different from the plane-wave result. Consequently, the energy dependence of the ^12C+^12C fusion cross section extracted from the THM data can be strongly distorted by the plane-wave treatment. It is concluded that the astrophysical factor extracted in the plane-wave analysis cannot be regarded as reliable and may lead to misleading conclusions concerning the low-energy ^12C+^12C fusion reaction.
ER  -