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Microfields, Kinetic Equations and Fusion Rates in Exploding Ion Clusters
Author(s) -
Ebeling W.,
Romanovsky M.Yu.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
contributions to plasma physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0863-1042
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.200910047
Subject(s) - non equilibrium thermodynamics , kinetic energy , physics , nuclear fusion , fusion , plasma , ion , atomic physics , work (physics) , deuterium , distribution function , vlasov equation , classical mechanics , nuclear physics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , linguistics , philosophy
The fusion of light nuclei is the main source of valuable energy. Recent experiments with intense, ultrafast laser pulses acting on deuterium clusters have shown that these clusters can explode with sufficient kinetic energy to produce DD nuclear fusion. In earlier work (2004) we discussed already the effect of microfields on fusion processes in ion clusters. In view of the relevance of the problem we take up the problem again and discuss enhancement effects due to nonequilibrium velocity distributions with long tails and their influence on the relative motions on the ions. In particlular we discuss fractional kinetic equations including the influence of plasma microfields and finite size effects. We study the influence of nonequilibrium effects in the velocity distribution due to the Coulomb explosion of the clusters. The role of Cauchy‐Lorentz nonequilibrium distributions of the velocity including long tails is discussed and their influence on the fusion rates is estimated (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)