Recent advancements in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) are making nuclear fusion energy more attainable. A significant achievement occurred at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in 2021, where scientists reached a burning plasma state that demonstrated unexpected plasma phenomena, leading to challenges against existing theoretical models. To tackle these issues, a research team led by Prof. Jie Zhang developed a new collision model that enables high-precision simulations, enhancing our understanding of high-energy-density physics and the early universe.
In ICF, deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel is ignited under extreme conditions, leading to fusion reactions where energy is primarily carried by neutrons and alpha particles, which can sustain further fusion. Observations from NIF revealed deviations in neutron spectra, indicating the emergence of supra-thermal DT ions, which do not conform to traditional Maxwellian distributions. This prompted the need to accurately model large-angle collisions involving substantial energy exchanges that contribute to these phenomena.
The innovative hybrid-particle-in-cell LAPINS code developed by Zhang’s team successfully addressed these challenges, achieving key findings that have implications for improving ignition schemes and advancing our understanding of nuclear burning plasmas and their role in elucidating the early universe’s physics.
