Coulomb explosion of "hot spot"

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Coulomb explosion of a hot spot in pinch implosion experiments leads to the generation of high-energy particles and x-rays, revealing the conditions for electron acceleration and ion kinetic energy.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of hot spot Coulomb explosion mechanisms and estimates the resulting ion energies in pinch implosion experiments.

Findings

Hot spot formation causes electron acceleration and runaway.

Coulomb explosion results in high-energy ions and x rays.

Conditions for electron acceleration are quantitatively identified.

Abstract

The study presented in this paper has shown that the generation of hard x rays and high-energy ions, which are detected in pinch implosion experiments, may be associated with the Coulomb explosion of the hot spot that is formed due to the outflow of the material from the pinch cross point. During the process of material outflow, the temperature of the hot spot plasma increases, and conditions arise for the plasma electrons to become continuously accelerated. The runaway of electrons from the hot spot region results in the buildup of positive space charge in this region followed by a Coulomb explosion. The conditions for the hot spot plasma electrons to become continuously accelerated have been revealed and estimates have been obtained for the kinetic energy of the ions generated by the Coulomb explosion.