Experimental Demonstration of Fusion-Relevant Conditions in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion

Gómez, M. R.; Slutz, Stephen A.; Sefkow, A. B.; Sinars, Daniel Brian; Hahn, Kelly; Hansen, Stephanie B.; Harding, Eric; Knapp, Patrick; Schmit, Paul; Jennings, Christopher; Awe, T. J.; Geißel, Matthias; Rovang, Dean C.; Chandler, G. A.; Cooper, G. W.; Cuneo, M. E.; Harvey‐Thompson, A. J.; Herrmann, Mark; Hess, Mark; Johns, Owen; Lamppa, Derek C.; Martin, Matthew; McBride, R. D.; Peterson, Kyle; Porter, J. L.; Robertson, G. K.; Rochau, Gregory A.; Ruiz, C. L.; Savage, M. E.; Smith, I. C.; Stygar, W. A.; Vesey, Roger Alan

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.155003

Cited by 378 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…9 The first neutronproducing experiments of the concept have occurred with encouraging preliminary results. 10 Over the past several decades, numerous ICF groups have studied the roles of magnetic fields in inertial fusion targets because of their effect on heat transport and the mobility of DT fusion-produced He 4 particles, also called alpha particles. To name a few examples, experiments conducted with an electron-beam-driven target at Sandia National Laboratories demonstrated enhanced fusion yield with fuel magnetization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments using the Z facility

et al. 2014

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The magnetized liner inertial fusion concept has been presented as a path toward obtaining substantial thermonuclear fusion yields using the Z accelerator [S. A. Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)]. We present the first integrated magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the inertial fusion targets, which self-consistently include laser preheating of the fuel, the presence of electrodes, and end loss effects. These numerical simulations provided the design for the first thermonuclear fusion neutron-producing experiments on Z using capabilities that presently exist: peak currents of Imax = 18–20 MA, pre-seeded axial magnetic fields of Bz0=10 T, laser preheat energies of about Elas = 2 kJ delivered in 2 ns, DD fuel, and an aspect ratio 6 solid Be liner imploded to 70 km/s. Specific design details and observables for both near-term and future experiments are discussed, including sensitivity to laser timing and absorbed preheat energy. The initial experiments measured stagnation radii rstag<75 μm, temperatures around 3 keV, and isotropic neutron yields up to YnDD=2×1012, with inferred alpha-particle magnetization parameters around rstag/rLα=1.7 [M. R. Gomez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (submitted)].

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments using the Z facility

et al. 2014

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“…We also present quantum statistical data within the e 4 -approximation that are in good agreement with the simulations at small to moderate rs. [11,12]. Besides, the electron component is of crucial importance for understanding the properties of atoms, molecules and existing and novel materials.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ab InitioThermodynamic Results for the Degenerate Electron Gas at Finite Temperature

et al. 2015

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The uniform electron gas (UEG) at finite temperature is of key relevance for many applications in dense plasmas, warm dense matter, laser excited solids and much more. Accurate thermodynamic data for the UEG are an essential ingredient for many-body theories, in particular, density functional theory. Recently, first-principle restricted path integral Monte Carlo results became available which, however, due to the fermion sign problem, had to be restricted to moderate degeneracy, i.e. low to moderate densities with rs =r/aB 1. Here we present novel first-principle configuration PIMC results for electrons for rs ≤ 1. We also present quantum statistical data within the e 4 -approximation that are in good agreement with the simulations at small to moderate rs. [11,12]. Besides, the electron component is of crucial importance for understanding the properties of atoms, molecules and existing and novel materials. The most successful approach has been density functional theory (DFT)-combined with an approximation for the exchange-correlation potential. Its success is based on the availability of accurate zero temperature data for the UEG which is obtained from analytically known limiting cases combined with first-principle quantum Monte Carlo data [13].In recent years more and more applications have emerged where the electrons are highly excited, e.g. by compression of the material or by electromagnetic radiation (see above), which require to go beyond zero temperature DFT. This has led to an urgent need for accurate thermodynamic data of the UEG at finite temperature. One known limiting case is the highly degenerate ideal Fermi gas (IFG), and perturbation theory results around the IFG, starting with the Hartree-Fock and first order correlation corrections (Montroll-Ward) [14,15] [27]. It is well known that fermionic PIMC simulation in continuous space suffer from the fermion sign problem (FSP) which is known to be NP hard [28]. This means, with increasing quantum degeneracy, i.e. increasing parameter χ = nλ 3 DB , which is the product of density and thermal DeBroglie wave length, λ, the simulations suffer an exponential loss of accuracy. RPIMC formally avoids the FSP by an additional assumption on the nodes of the density matrix, however, it also cannot access high densities [29], r s < 1 [r s =r/a B , wherer is the mean interparticle distance, n −1 = 4πr 3 /3 and a B the Bohr radius]. Also, the quality of the simulations around r s = 1, at low temperatures Θ = k B T /E F ≤ 0.125 [E F is the Fermi energy] is unknown. However, this leaves out the high-density range that is of high importance, e.g. for deuterium-tritium implosions at NIF where mass densities of 400 gcm −3 (up to 1596 gcm −3 ) have recently been reported [9] (are expected along the implosion path [8]), corresponding to r s ≈ 0.24 (r s = 0.15), see Fig. 1.The authors of Ref.[27] also performed DPIMC simulations which confirmed that, for Θ < 0.5 and r s 4, these simulations are practically not possible, see Fig. 1. We also mention independent recent DPIMC ...

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“…In particular, recent experimental progress with highly compressed matter [1][2][3] such as plasmas in laser fusion experiments [4][5][6][7][8][9] and solids after laser irradiation [10], but also the need for an appropriate description of compact stars and planet cores [11][12][13], has lead to a high demand for accurate simulations of electrons in the warm dense matter (WDM) regime. Unfortunately, the application of all QMC methods to fermions is severely hampered by the fermion sign problem (FSP) [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ab initioquantum Monte Carlo simulations of the uniform electron gas without fixed nodes: The unpolarized case

et al. 2016

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In a recent publication [S. Groth et al., PRB (2016)], we have shown that the combination of two novel complementary quantum Monte Carlo approaches, namely configuration path integral Monte Carlo (CPIMC) [T. Schoof et al., PRL 115, 130402 (2015)] and permutation blocking path integral Monte Carlo (PB-PIMC) [T. Dornheim et al., NJP 17, 073017 (2015)], allows for the accurate computation of thermodynamic properties of the spin-polarized uniform electron gas (UEG) over a wide range of temperatures and densities without the fixed-node approximation. In the present work, we extend this concept to the unpolarized case, which requires non-trivial enhancements that we describe in detail. We compare our new simulation results with recent restricted path integral Monte Carlo data [E. Brown et al., PRL 110, 146405 (2013)] for different energy contributions and pair distribution functions and find, for the exchange correlation energy, overall better agreement than for the spin-polarized case, while the separate kinetic and potential contributions substantially deviate.

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Experimental Demonstration of Fusion-Relevant Conditions in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion

Cited by 378 publications

References 34 publications

Design of magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments using the Z facility

Design of magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments using the Z facility

Ab InitioThermodynamic Results for the Degenerate Electron Gas at Finite Temperature

Ab initioquantum Monte Carlo simulations of the uniform electron gas without fixed nodes: The unpolarized case

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