Enhancement of nuclear reaction rates in asymmetric binary ionic mixtures

Using orbital‐free molecular dynamics simulations we study the structure and dynamics of increasingly asymmetric mixtures such as hydrogen–carbon, hydrogen–aluminium, hydrogen–copper, and hydrogen–silver. We show that, whereas the heavy component structure is close to an effective one‐component plasma (OCP), the light component appears more structured than the corresponding OCP. This effect is related to the crossover towards a Lorentz‐type diffusion triggered by strongly coupled, highly charged heavy ions, and witnessed by the change of temperature scaling laws of diffusion. This over‐correlation translates into an enhancement of nuclear reaction rates much higher than its classical OCP counterpart.