Rotation-Aided Confinement in Magneto-Inertial Fusion Schemes

ORAL

Abstract

We consider a standard MagLIF target, where instead of a gas-prefill that anticipates being preheated by the Z-beamlet laser, its mass is contained in a cryo-DT fiber on axis. A 1 MA pulsed power device can be used to turn the fiber into a hot plasma, which would then fill up the capsule, just before it is imploded using a 25 MA driver, such as the Z- Machine. In such a scenario, an axial $B_{z}$ would trigger an azimuthal rotation, $v_{\phi}$. One can analytically illustrate that for a given uniform $B_{z}$, and a $B_{\phi}(r,z)$, the $z$-dependence introduced by the additional driver, will yield a nontrivial $J_{r}$ that would spin the plasma via the $\vec{J}\times\vec{B}$-force. Here we investigate how much rotation is to be expected in such a target, and to what extent it may improve confinement performance over laser-driven preheating. We carry out this investigation using the multi-physics MHD AMR code, FLASH.

Authors

  • Marissa Adams

    University of Rochester, University of Chicago

  • Eddie Hansen

    University of Chicago

  • Benjamin Khiar

    University of Chicago

  • Klaus Weide

    University of Chicago

  • Petros Tzeferacos

    University of Chicago, U. Chicago, university of chicago

  • Pierre Gourdain

    University of Rochester