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arXiv · 0712.1023

Charged Particle Stopping Power Effects on Ignition: Some Results from an Exact Calculation

Robert L. Singleton Jr
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Abstract

A completely rigorous first-principles calculation of the charged particle stopping power has recently been performed by Brown, Preston, and Singleton (BPS). This calculation is exact to leading and next-to-leading order in the plasma number density, including an exact treatment of two-body quantum scattering. The BPS calculation is therefore extremely accurate in the plasma regime realized during the ignition and burn of an inertial confinement fusion capsule. For deuterium-tritium fusion, the 3.5 MeV alpha particle range tends to be 20-30% longer than most models in the literature have predicted, and the energy deposition into the ions tends to be smaller. Preliminary numerical simulations indicate that this increases the rho-R required to achieve ignition.

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Robert L. Singleton Jr. 2008-02-21. Charged Particle Stopping Power Effects on Ignition: Some Results from an Exact Calculation. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2840134

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