plasma screening

Plasma screening refers to the way free-moving charged particles, like electrons and ions, in a plasma environment reduce the electric influence of individual charged nuclei. When a nucleus is in a plasma, nearby particles tend to surround it, partially neutralizing its electric field. This "screening" effect lowers the effective barrier for nuclear reactions, such as fusion, making these reactions easier to occur than if the nucleus were isolated. Essentially, plasma screening modifies how particles interact, influencing processes in stars, fusion experiments, and plasma physics by diminishing the repulsive forces between positively charged nuclei.