🚀 go-pugleaf

I read in a recent New Scientist (a British science magazine that is
about at the Scientific American level of technical detail) that there
is a new explanation for the missing solar neutrinos. The explanation
wasn't given in any detail in the article, but the rough idea is the
following:

The usual theoretical calculations done for nuclear fusion treats the
case of collisions of bare nuclei. That is, only protons and neutrons
are considered. However, in an actual nuclear reaction in the center
of stars, there are huge numbers of electrons floating around. The
electrons have an influence on the fusion reaction, because the
negatively charged electrons to a certain extent shield the protons
from the full effect of their electrical repulsion. Thus, the
electrons can act as a kind of catalyst for fusion reactions, thus
lowering the temperature necessary to achieve a sustained reaction.

I don't know enough about fusion to understand how the temperature
enters into neutrino calculations, but in the article it was claimed
that the effect of the electrons would explain the missing neutrinos.

Is there anyone familiar with this explanation who can give a more
complete explanation (or explain why it is nonsense)?

Daryl McCullough
ORA Corp.
Ithaca, NY