Study of nuclear reactions in laser plasmas at future ELI-NP facility

G Lanzalone,M Trimarchi,A Anzalone,H Petrascu,L A Gizzi,L Labate,S Tudisco,C Altana,F Odorici,A Trifirò,A Muoio,D Mascali,F Negoiţă ,L Lamia,F Cappuzzello,M Cavallaro

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201611705008

Abstract

In this contribution we will present the future activities that our collaboration will carry out at ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics), the new multi peta-watt Laser facility, currently under construction at Bucharest (Romania). The activities concerns the study of nuclear reactions in laser plasmas. In this framework we proposed the construction of a new, general-purpose experimental set-up able to detect and identify neutrons and charged particles.

Highlights

Plasma is the most common form of ordinary matter known in the universe
One of the crucial aspects is the possible appearance of new phenomena in nuclear physics in plasmas
Relevant for astrophysical studies have been performed in the past at other laboratories, with both target and projectile in their ground state

Summary

Introduction

Plasma is the most common form of ordinary matter known in the universe. One of the crucial aspects is the possible appearance of new phenomena. The discovery, for example, that, in the nuclear reactions, at very low energies the electrons of the target atoms partially screen the Coulomb barrier between the projectile and the target nuclei, with a resulting enhancement of the fusion cross section, opens new and important perspective on astrophysics and cosmology Such an effect, called “electron screening”, affects our knowledge of nuclear processes in stellar plasmas. Other new topics can be conveniently explored by studying nuclear reactions in plasmas, such as, for instance, three body fusion reactions (as those predicted by Hoyle [2]), lifetime changes of unstable elements [3] or nuclear and atomic levels [4] in different plasma environments and fundamental physics issues like non-extensive statistical thermodynamics [5] This last topic can be investigated in order to validate/confute the general assumption of local thermal equilibrium that is traditionally adopted for plasmas [6]

Physics case

Experimental set-up