English

An ignition criterion for inertial fusion boosted by microturbulence

Plasma Physics 2025-07-28 v1

Abstract

Turbulence enhances fusion reactivity, enabling ignition at lower temperature. A modified Lawson-like ignition criterion is derived for inertially confined plasmas harboring turbulent kinetic energy. Remarkably, if small-scale turbulence is driven in the hot spot while avoiding mixing at the boundary, less energy is required to ignite a target. The optimal length scale for hot-spot turbulence is quantified, typically lying in the micron range.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.18917,
  title  = {An ignition criterion for inertial fusion boosted by microturbulence},
  author = {Henry Fetsch and Nathaniel J. Fisch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.18917},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

5 pages, 5 figures