Protons in the Sun’s core are a dense plasma allowing fusion events where two protons initially join to produce a deuteron. Eventually this leads to alpha particles, the mass-four nucleus of helium, releasing kinetic energy. Schrodinger’s equation allows particles to penetrate classically forbidden Coulomb barriers with small but important probabilities. The approximation known as Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) is used by Gamow to predict the rate of proton–proton fusion in the Sun, shown to be in agreement with measurements. A simplified formula is given for the power density due to fusion in the plasma constituting the Sun’s core. The properties of atomic nuclei are briefly summarized.
