Coulomb screening in low-energy nuclear reactions

Coulomb screening effects are studied in very-low-energy nuclear reactions. The two-potential formalism is shown to be a convenient method for the separation of long-range (molecular) and short-range (nuclear) dynamics. As specific applications, electron screening effects and muon catalysis in nuclear reactions are investigated. In the case of electron screening in very-low-energy nuclear reactions a method is elaborated for calculation of the enhancement of the astrophysical factor. For muon-catalyzed fusion reactions the sudden approximation is shown to be valid even if the reaction is dominated by a long-lived nuclear resonance.