Transport in the presence of inverse bremsstrahlung heating and magnetic fields
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX (United Kingdom)
- Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)
Electron transport in the presence of long (nanosecond) laser pulses can be significantly different from that of magnetohydrodynamics calculations using Braginskii's transport theory, due to the distortion of the underlying electron distribution function from a Maxwellian. To correctly model the transport under conditions relevant to direct and indirect-drive inertial fusion plasmas, the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation for the electrons should be solved; however, this is computationally intensive. Modified transport coefficients have been calculated for a distribution function appropriate to a plasma heated by inverse-bremsstrahlung, i.e., a super-Gaussian. The resulting transport was then compared to a Vlasov-Fokker-Planck code. Furthermore, it was shown that existing magnetohydrodynamics codes can be modified using the new transport coefficients and made more accurate by up to ten times with a modest computational cost.
- OSTI ID:
- 21269047
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2978092; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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