Related papers: Improved Ion Heating in Fast Ignition by Pulse Sha…
Electron and ion energization (i.e., heating and nonthermal acceleration) is a fundamental, but poorly understood, outcome of plasma turbulence. In this work, we present new results on this topic from particle-in-cell simulations of driven…
A pulse shape designer for direct drive inertial confinement fusion has been developed, it aims at high compression of the fusion fuel while keeping hydrodynamics instability within tolerable level. Fast linear analysis on implosion…
A new hybrid indirect-direct-drive ignition scheme is proposed for inertial confinement fusion: a cryogenic capsule encased in a hohlraum is first compressed symmetrically by indirect-drive x-rays, and then accelerated and ignited by both…
The fast ignition paradigm for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) allows for extremely high gains but requires fuel to be heated very quickly to outpace hotspot disassembly and energy losses. This demands lasers with high power and…
In systems accreting well below the Eddington rate, the plasma in the innermost regions of the disk is collisionless and two-temperature, with the ions hotter than the electrons. Yet, whether a collisionless faster-than-Coulomb energy…
In the innermost regions of low-luminosity accretion flows, including Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy, the frequency of Coulomb collisions is so low that the plasma is two-temperature, with the ions substantially hotter than the…
In the electron-driven fast-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion, petawatt laser pulses are required to generate MeV electrons that deposit several tens of kilojoules in the compressed core of an imploded DT shell. We review…
In moderately-coupled plasmas, a significant fraction of the internal energy resides in electric fields. As these plasmas are heated or compressed, the shifting partition of energy between particles and fields leads to surprising effects,…
Magnetic reconnection and associated heating of ions and electrons in strongly magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas are studied by means of gyrokinetic simulations. It is shown that an appreciable amount of the released magnetic energy is…
The onset of the acceleration of ions during magnetic reconnection is explored via particle-in-cell simulations in the limit of a strong ambient guide field that self-consistently and simultaneously follow the motions of protons and…
Imposing a magnetic field on inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions magnetizes the electrons in the compressed fuel; this suppresses thermal losses which increases temperature and fusion yield. Indirect-drive experiments at the…
We simulate decaying turbulence in a homogeneous pair plasma using three dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) method. A uniform background magnetic field permeates the plasma such that the magnetic pressure is three times…
An optically thin $p$-$^{11}$B plasma loses more energy to bremsstrahlung than it gains from fusion reactions, unless the ion temperature can be elevated above the electron temperature. In thermal plasmas, the temperature differences…
We present hybrid PIC simulations of fast electron transport and energy deposition in pre-compressed fusion targets, taking full account of collective magnetic effects and the hydrodynamic response of the background plasma. Results on…
Intense, pulsed ion beams locally heat materials and deliver dense electronic excitations that can induce materials modifications and phase transitions. Materials properties can potentially be stabilized by rapid quenching. Pulsed ion beams…
A recently published scheme for inertial fusion based on instantaneous heating of an uncompressed fuel is criticized. It is shown that efficient fusion and time-like fusion burn propagation cannot be realized due to the low nuclear reaction…
Inertial Confinement Fusion is a promising option to provide massive, clean, and affordable energy for humanity in the future. The present status of research and development is hindered by hydrodynamic instabilities occurring at the intense…
The creation of well-thermalized, hot and dense plasmas is attractive for warm dense matter studies. We investigate collisionally induced energy absorption of an ultraintense and ultrashort laser pulse in a solid copper target using…
Inertial confinement fusion fuel suffers increased X-ray radiation losses when carbon from the capsule ablator mixes into the hot-spot. Here we present one and two-dimensional ion Vlasov-Fokker-Planck simulations that resolve hot-spot self…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…