Enhancement of fusion reactivities using non-Maxwellian energy distributions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-Maxwellian energy distributions, such as kappa-distributions, can enhance fusion reactivities by analyzing the dependence of tunneling probabilities on energy, identifying conditions for reactivity boosts.

Contribution

It provides an analytical and numerical analysis of fusion reactivity enhancement using non-Maxwellian distributions, extending understanding beyond traditional Maxwellian assumptions.

Findings

Reactivity can be boosted within a finite temperature range.

Analytical results for bimodal Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions.

Numerical evaluation for kappa-distributions shows potential reactivity enhancement.

Abstract

We discuss conditions for the enhancement of fusion reactivities arising from different choices of energy distribution functions for the reactants. The key element for potential gains in fusion reactivity is identified in the functional dependence of the tunnellng coefficient upon the energy, ensuring the existence of a finite range of temperatures for which reactivity of fusion processes is boosted with respect to the Maxwellian case. This is shown, using a convenient parameterization of the tunneling coefficient dependence upon the energy, analytically in the simplified case of a bimodal Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, and numerically for kappa-distributions. We then consider tunneling potentials progressively better approximating fusion processes, and evaluate in each case the average reactivity in the case of kappa-distributions.