Efficacy of ICF experiments in light ion fusion cross section measurement at nucleosynthesis relevant energies
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Published version
Author(s)
Crilly, Aidan
Garin-Fernandez, Idoia
Appelbe, Brian
Chittenden, Jeremy
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments create a unique laboratory environment in which thermonuclear fusion reactions
occur within a plasma, with conditions comparable to stellar cores and the early universe. In contrast, accelerator-based
measurements must compete with bound electron screening effects and beam stopping when measuring fusion cross sections at
nucleosynthesis-relevant energies. Therefore, ICF experiments are a natural place to study nuclear reactions relevant to nuclear
astrophysics. However, analysis of ICF-based measurements must address its own set of complicating factors. These include: the
inherent range of reaction energies, spatial and temporal thermal temperature variation, and kinetic effects such as species
separation. In this work we examine these phenomena and develop an analysis to quantify and, when possible, compensate for
their effects on our inference. Error propagation in the analyses are studied using synthetic data combined with Markov Chain
Monte Carlo (MCMC) machine learning. The novel inference techniques will aid in the extraction of valuable and accurate data from
ICF-based nuclear astrophysics experiments.
occur within a plasma, with conditions comparable to stellar cores and the early universe. In contrast, accelerator-based
measurements must compete with bound electron screening effects and beam stopping when measuring fusion cross sections at
nucleosynthesis-relevant energies. Therefore, ICF experiments are a natural place to study nuclear reactions relevant to nuclear
astrophysics. However, analysis of ICF-based measurements must address its own set of complicating factors. These include: the
inherent range of reaction energies, spatial and temporal thermal temperature variation, and kinetic effects such as species
separation. In this work we examine these phenomena and develop an analysis to quantify and, when possible, compensate for
their effects on our inference. Error propagation in the analyses are studied using synthetic data combined with Markov Chain
Monte Carlo (MCMC) machine learning. The novel inference techniques will aid in the extraction of valuable and accurate data from
ICF-based nuclear astrophysics experiments.
Date Issued
2022-09-20
Date Acceptance
2022-08-25
Citation
Frontiers in Physics, 2022, 10, pp.1-11
ISSN
2296-424X
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Physics
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Crilly, Garin-Fernandez, Appelbe and Chittenden. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Sponsor
U.S Department of Energy
AWE Plc
U.S Department of Energy
Identifier
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2022.937972/full
Grant Number
SUB00000024/GR530167
30469588
Subcontract No B648336
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Physics
inertial confinement fusion (ICF)
nuclear astrophysics
Bayesian inference
S factor
bare nuclear cross section
thermal reactivity
ion kinetic effects
DATA LIBRARY
CHAIN
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
937972
Date Publish Online
2022-09-20