A massive-ion beam driver for high-energy-density physics and future inertial fusion

Abstract

Several heavy ion drivers for heavy ion inertial fusion have been proposed in the US and Europe, based on linear induction accelerator technology [1] and existing RF technology [2], respectively, although they have not been realized on a large scale. Developing accelerator technology may provide an alternative efficient, robust, and relatively cheap massive-ion beam driver for future particle beam inertial fusion. Here, we propose an accelerator complex for accelerating giant cluster ions, instead of lead or bismuth ions, toward 120 GeV by using induction acceleration over the entire energy region. The proposed two-way multiplex induction synchrotron that is the main accelerator for the giant cluster ion beam would be equivalent to 10 synchrotrons of the same size for a single beam.