Plane thermonuclear detonation waves initiated by proton beams and quasi-one-dimensional model of fast ignition

TL;DR

This paper models plane thermonuclear detonation waves initiated by proton beams in condensed DT fuel, providing analytical solutions and estimating ignition energies relevant for fast ignition in inertial confinement fusion.

Contribution

It introduces a quasi-one-dimensional model for fast ignition, deriving analytical solutions and estimating ignition energies for proton beam-driven thermonuclear detonation waves.

Findings

Gain of neutron energy $G \\approx 200$ at $H ho_0 \\approx 1$ g/cm$^2$

Gain of neutron energy $G > 2000$ at $H ho_0 \\approx 5$ g/cm$^2$

Ignition energy $E_{ig} \\approx 160$ kJ for $ ho_0 = 100 ho_s$

Abstract

The one-dimensional (1D) problem on bilatiral irradiation by proton beams of the plane layer of condensed DT mixture with length $2H$ and density $\rho_0 \leqslant 100\rho_s$, where $\rho_s$ is the fuel solid-state density at atmospheric pressure and temperature of 4 K, is considered. The proton kinetic energy is 1 MeV, the beam intensity is $10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$ and duration is 50 ps. A mathematical model is based on the one-fluid two-temperature hydrodynamics with a wide-range equation of state of the fuel, electron and ion heat conduction, DT fusion reaction kinetics, self-radiation of plasma and plasma heating by alpha-particles. If the ignition occurs, a plane detonation wave, which is adjacent to the front of the rarefaction wave, appears. Upon reflection of this detonation wave from the symmetry plane, the flow with the linear velocity profile along the spatial variable $x$ and with a weak dependence of the thermodynamic functions of $x$ occurs. An appropriate solution of the equations of hydrodynamics is found analytically up to an arbitrary constant, which can be chosen so that the analytical solution describes with good accuracy the numerical one. The gain with respect to the energy of neutrons $G\approx 200$ at $H\rho_0 \approx 1$ g/cm$^2$, and $G>2000$ at $H\rho_0 \approx 5$ g/cm$^2$. To evaluate the ignition energy $E_{\mathrm{ig}}$ of cylindrical targets, the quasi-1D model, limiting trajectories of $\alpha$-particles by a cylinder of a given radius, is suggested. The model reproduces the known theoretical dependence $E_{\mathrm{ig}} \sim \rho_0^{-2}$ and gives $E_{\mathrm{ig}} = 160$ kJ for $\rho_0 = 100\rho_s \approx 22$ g/cm$^3$.