Measurement of screening enhancement to nuclear reaction rates using a strongly magnetized and strongly correlated non-neutral plasma.

An analogy is uncovered between the nuclear reaction rate in a dense neutral plasma and the energy equipartition rate in a strongly magnetized non-neutral plasma. In strong magnetic fields, cyclotron energy, like nuclear energy, is released only through rare close collisions between charges. The probability of such collisions is enhanced by plasma screening effects, just as in nuclear reactions. Enhancements of up to 10(10) are measured in simulations of cyclotron energy equipartition and are compared to the theory of screened nuclear reactions.