Compton Scattering in Ignited Thermonuclear Plasmas

Inertially confined, ignited thermonuclear D-T plasmas will produce intense blackbody radiation at temperatures T $\sim $ 20 keV; it is shown that the injection of GeV electrons into the burning core can efficiently generate high-energy Compton scattering photons. Moreover, the spectrum scattered in a small solid angle can be remarkably monochromatic, due to kinematic pileup; peak brightness in excess of 10$^{29}$ photons/(mm$^{2}$ x mrad$^{2}$ x s x 0.1{\%} bandwidth) are predicted. Electron focusing of the $\gamma $-rays could produce electromagnetic fields exceeding the Schwinger critical field.