Activities on heavy ion inertial fusion and beam-driven high energy density science in Japan

Abstract

Recent research activities in Japan relevant to heavy ion fusion (HIF) are presented. During the past two years, significant progress in HIF and high energy density (HED) physics research has been made by a number of research groups in universities and accelerator facilities. Evolutions in phase space during the longitudinal compression of intense beams were investigated at UU–NUT–TIT. Beam–plasma interaction experiments and related theoretical studies are in progress at RLNR-TIT. In the study, shock-heated hydrogen was used for the interaction experiments as a well-defined non-ideal-plasma target. In the beam–plasma interaction experiments, a special emphasis is placed on an evaluation of non-linear effects on the stopping power in a beam-heated plasma target. A direct–indirect hybrid scheme of a beam-driven ICF target has been proposed and discussed at UU. In the same group, a method for controlling the Rayleigh–Taylor instability in imploding fuel target has been proposed using oscillating heavy ion beams (HIBs). Core dynamics of the impact ignition has been investigated both experimentally and numerically at ILE—Osaka. Dense plasmas driven by intense ion beams and/or a pulse powered device, were evaluated by a group of DES-TIT, concerning the researches on HED and warm dense matter (WDM) physics. A quasi-statically tamped target was proposed to make a well-defined, warm dense state for equation-of-state (EOS) studies based on ion accelerators. The potentiality of the new facility planned at KEK was evaluated by a collaborating group of TIT–UU–KEK, which can extend the parameter regime for laboratory experiments to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions. A possible method to make a high-pressure condition for study of the planetary science was discussed as a short-term subject of intense HIBs.