A kinetic study of fusion burn waves in compressed deuterium-tritium and proton-boron plasmas.

This article presents a kinetic study of fusion burn waves in compressed deuterium-tritium and proton-boron plasmas. The study uses particle-in-cell simulations with Monte Carlo collisions to analyze the energy balance in the expansion of a hot-spot, capturing alpha particle heating and radiative losses. The simulations show that the energy radiated by the hot-spot is recaptured by the surrounding high-density fuel, resulting in a net fusion energy production that is twice the initial hot-spot energy. The study provides insights into the feasibility of proton-boron fusion as an alternative fusion fuel. The given text describes a simulation model for studying Coulomb collisions, fusion reactions, and bremsstrahlung radiation in high-density, highly-collisional systems. The model uses a binary Monte Carlo collision method to simulate these interactions between particles. The text explains the implementation of bremsstrahlung emission and inverse bremsstrahlung absorption in the simulation model. The model is verified through simulations of bremsstrahlung emission from an electron beam incident on solid boron, laser heating of a hydrogen plasma, and photon emission and absorption in a p-11B plasma. The given text discusses the results of simulations on various plasma scenarios. The simulations include laser heating of a hydrogen plasma, fusion burn waves in compressed DT and p-11B plasmas, and the measurement of radiation and fusion power density in a fully ionized p-11B plasma. The results show close agreement between the simulations and other [Extracted from the article]