Nuclear Fusion in Laser-Driven Counter-Streaming Collisionless Plasmas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that laser-driven counter-streaming collisionless plasmas can be used to study nuclear fusion reactions under conditions similar to astrophysical environments, revealing significant modulation of reaction yields by plasma electromagnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a plasma-based mini-collider approach to investigate astrophysical nuclear reactions with tunable energies in laboratory settings.

Findings

Fusion D+D reaction studied in a plasma environment at 27 keV.

Reaction yield is significantly affected by self-generated electromagnetic fields.

The method offers a new tool for astrophysics-related nuclear reaction research.

Abstract

Nuclear fusion reactions are the most important processes in nature to power stars and produce new elements, and lie at the center of the understanding of nucleosynthesis in the universe. It is critically important to study the reactions in full plasma environments that are close to true astrophysical conditions. By using laser-driven counter-streaming collisionless plasmas, we studied the fusion D$+$D$\rightarrow n +^3$He in a Gamow-like window around 27 keV. The results show that astrophysical nuclear reaction yield can be modulated significantly by the self-generated electromagnetic fields and the collective motion of the plasma. This plasma-version mini-collider may provide a novel tool for studies of astrophysics-interested nuclear reactions in plasma with tunable energies in earth-based laboratories.