State dependence of tunneling processes and thermonuclear fusion

Abstract: We discuss the sensitivity of tunneling processes to the initial preparation of the quantum state. We compare the case of Gaussian wave packets of different positional variances using a generalised Woods-Saxon potential for which analytical expressions of the tunneling coefficients are available. Using realistic parameters for barrier potentials we find that the usual plane wave approximation underestimates fusion reactivities by an order of magnitude in a range of temperatures of practical relevance for controlled energy production.