Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/s3/3/c/solution

At a separation of fm, the proton Coulomb energy is approximately MeV, whereas keV at the stated solar-core temperature. As a deliberately crude rectangular-barrier estimate, take a width of fm and use the two-proton reduced mass . Then
so
Treating one proton as fixed and using instead gives about . Both estimates only say that this arbitrarily shortened barrier would be fairly transparent; the opaque-barrier exponential is itself uncontrolled for such a small exponent.
There is an important conditioning issue. If the protons have already reached a separation of one femtometre, most of the long-range Coulomb suppression has already been overcome. The rectangular estimate cannot represent the probability for thermal protons starting far apart. Their classical turning separation at this energy is about fm, not one femtometre.

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