Influence of coupling on thermal forces and dynamic friction in plasmas with multiple ion species

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong coupling affects diffusion, thermal forces, and friction in multi-ion plasmas, with implications for inertial confinement fusion, using the effective potential theory.

Contribution

It applies the effective potential theory to analyze the impact of coupling on inter-ion diffusion and momentum exchange in multi-component plasmas, revealing key behaviors.

Findings

Thermo-diffusion and thermal force diminish rapidly with strong coupling.

Dynamic friction coefficient tends to unity at high coupling.

Results inform diffusive process modeling in fusion experiments.

Abstract

The recently proposed effective potential theory [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 235001 (2013)] is used to investigate the influence of coupling on inter-ion-species diffusion and momentum exchange in multi-component plasmas. Thermo-diffusion and the thermal force are found to diminish rapidly as strong coupling onsets. For the same coupling parameters, the dynamic friction coefficient is found to tend to unity. These results provide an impetus for addressing the role of coupling on diffusive processes in inertial confinement fusion experiments.