Deuterium-deuterium nuclear cross-sections in insulator and metallic environments

The three-dimensional Thomas-Fermi (TF) model is used to simulate the variation of the d + d → t + p cross-section at low impact energies, when the target deuterium nucleus is embedded in metallic or insulator environments. The comparison of the computational results to recent experiments demonstrates that even though the TF model can explain some increase in the low-energy cross-section for metallic host, a full explanation of the experimental results is still lacking. Possible reasons for the disagreement are discussed.