Joseph Natowitz

Temperature Measurements of Fusion Plasmas Produced by Petawatt-Laser-Irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He Clustering Gases

Two different methods have been employed to determine the plasma temperature in a laser-cluster fusion experiment on the Texas Petawatt laser. In the first, the temperature was derived from time-of-flight data of deuterium ions ejected from exploding D(2) or CD(4) clusters. In the second, the temperature was measured from the ratio of the rates of two different nuclear fusion reactions occurring in the plasma at the same time: D(d,(3)He)n and (3)He(d,p)(4)He. The temperatures determined by these two methods agree well, which indicates that (i) the ion energy distribution is not significantly distorted when ions travel in the disassembling plasma; (ii) the kinetic energy of deuterium ions, especially the hottest part responsible for nuclear fusion, is well described by a near-Maxwellian distribution.

Constraining supernova equations of state with equilibrium constants from heavy-ion collisions

Cluster formation is a fundamental aspect of the equation of state (EOS) of warm and dense nuclear matter such as can be found in supernovae (SNe). Similar matter can be studied in heavy-ion collisions (HICs). We use the experimental data of Qin et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 172701 (2012)] to test calculations of cluster formation and the role of in-medium modifications of cluster properties in SN EOSs. For the comparison between theory and experiment we use chemical equilibrium constants as the main observables. This reduces some of the systematic uncertainties and allows deviations from ideal gas behavior to be identified clearly. In the analysis, we carefully account for the differences between matter in SNe and HICs. We find that, at the lowest densities, the experiment and all theoretical models are consistent with the ideal gas behavior. At higher densities ideal behavior is clearly ruled out and interaction effects have to be considered. The contributions of continuum correlations are of relevance in the virial expansion and remain a difficult problem to solve at higher densities. We conclude that at the densities and temperatures discussed mean-field interactions of nucleons, inclusion of all relevant light clusters, and a suppression mechanism of clusters at high densities have to be incorporated in the SN EOS.

Nuclear Modification Factor for Charged Pions and Protons at Forward Rapidity in Central Au+Au Collisions at 200-GeV

We present spectra of charged pions and protons in 0–10% central Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV at mid-rapidity (y = 0) and forward pseudorapidity (η = 2.2) measured with the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC. The spectra are compared to spectra from p + p collisions at the same energy scaled by the number of binary collisions. The resulting nuclear modification factors for central Au + Au collisions at both y = 0 and η = 2.2 exhibit suppression for charged pions but not for (anti-) protons at intermediate pT . The p̄/π− ratios have been measured up to pT ∼ 3 GeV/c at the two rapidities and the results indicate that a significant fraction of the charged hadrons produced at intermediate pT range are (anti-) protons at both mid-rapidity and η = 2.2.

Model-independent determination of the astrophysical S factor in laser-induced fusion plasmas

In this paper, we present a new and general method for measuring the astrophysical S factor of nuclear reactions in laser-induced plasmas and we apply it to 2H(d,n)3He. The experiment was performed with the Texas Petawatt Laser, which delivered 150–270 fs pulses of energy ranging from 90 to 180 J to D2 or CD4 molecular clusters (where D denotes 2H). After removing the background noise, we used the measured time-of-flight data of energetic deuterium ions to obtain their energy distribution. We derive the S factor using the measured energy distribution of the ions, the measured volume of the fusion plasma, and the measured fusion yields. This method is model independent in the sense that no assumption on the state of the system is required, but it requires an accurate measurement of the ion energy distribution, especially at high energies, and of the relevant fusion yields. In the 2H(d,n)3He and 3He(d,p)4He cases discussed here, it is very important to apply the background subtraction for the energetic ions and to measure the fusion yields with high precision. While the available data on both ion distribution and fusion yields allow us to determine with good precision the S factor in the d+d casemorexa0» (lower Gamow energies), for the d+3He case the data are not precise enough to obtain the S factor using this method. Our results agree with other experiments within the experimental error, even though smaller values of the S factor were obtained. This might be due to the plasma environment differing from the beam target conditions in a conventional accelerator experiment.«xa0less

Experimental study of fusion neutron and proton yields produced by petawatt-laser-irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He clustering gases

We report on experiments in which the Texas Petawatt laser irradiated a mixture of deuterium or deuterated methane clusters and helium-3 gas, generating three types of nuclear fusion reactions: D(d,^{3}He)n, D(d,t)p, and ^{3}He(d,p)^{4}He. We measured the yields of fusion neutrons and protons from these reactions and found them to agree with yields based on a simple cylindrical plasma model using known cross sections and measured plasma parameters. Within our measurement errors, the fusion products were isotropically distributed. Plasma temperatures, important for the cross sections, were determined by two independent methods: (1) deuterium ion time of flight and (2) utilizing the ratio of neutron yield to proton yield from D(d,^{3}He)n and ^{3}He(d,p)^{4}He reactions, respectively. This experiment produced the highest ion temperature ever achieved with laser-irradiated deuterium clusters.

Thermal and log-normal distributions of plasma in laser driven Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters

In this work, we explore the possibility that the motion of the deuterium ions emitted from Coulomb cluster explosions is highly disordered enough to resemble thermalization. We analyze the process of nuclear fusion reactions driven by laser–cluster interactions in experiments conducted at the Texas Petawatt laser facility using a mixture of D2+3He and CD4+3He cluster targets. When clusters explode by Coulomb repulsion, the emission of the energetic ions is “nearly” isotropic. In the framework of cluster Coulomb explosions, we analyze the energy distributions of the ions using a Maxwell–Boltzmann (MB) distribution, a shifted MB distribution (sMB), and the energy distribution derived from a log-normal (LN) size distribution of clusters. We show that the first two distributions reproduce well the experimentally measured ion energy distributions and the number of fusions from d–d and d-3He reactions. The LN distribution is a good representation of the ion kinetic energy distribution well up to high momenta where the noise becomes dominant, but overestimates both the neutron and the proton yields. If the parameters of the LN distributions are chosen to reproduce the fusion yields correctly, the experimentally measured high energy ion spectrum is not well represented. We conclude that the ion kinetic energy distribution is highly disordered and practically not distinguishable from a thermalized one.

Study of the yield of D-D, D-3He fusion reactions produced by the interaction of intense ultrafast laser pulses with molecular clusters

The interaction of intense ultrafast laser pulses with molecular clusters produces a Coulomb explosion of the clusters. In this process, the positive ions from the clusters might gain enough kinetic energy to drive nuclear reactions. An experiment to measure the yield of D-D and D-3He fusion reactions was performed at University of Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science. Laser pulses of energy ranging from 100 to 180 J and duration 150fs were delivered by the Petawatt laser. The temperature of the energetic deuterium ions was measured using a Faraday cup, whereas the yields of the D-D reactions were measured by detecting the characteristic 2.45 MeV neutrons and 3.02 MeV protons. In order to allow the simultaneous measurement of 3He(D,p)4He and D-D reactions, different concentrations of D2 and 3He or CD4 and 3He were mixed in the gas jet target. The 2.45 MeV neutrons from the D(D,n)3He reaction were detecteded as well as the 14.7 MeV protons from the 3He(D,p)4He reaction. The preliminary results will be shown.

Reaction mechanisms of 10 to 43 MeV/u heavy ions

Abstract Measurements of particle emission, linear momentum transfer and angular momentum transfer have been used to explore reaction mechanisms in the intermediate energy range where qualitatively different nuclear processes may be observable. The current status of our understanding of heavy ion reaction mechanisms with projectiles having velocities comparable to the velocity of sound and the Fermi velocity is summarized.

A laser application to nuclear astrophysics

In the last decade, the availability in high-intensity laser beams capable of producing plasmas with ion energies large enough to induce nuclear reactions has opened new research paths in nuclear physics. We studied the reactions 3He(d,p)4He and d(d,n)3He at temperatures of few keV in a plasma, generated by the interaction of intense ultrafast laser pulses with molecular deuterium or deuterated-methane clusters mixed with 3He atoms. The yield of 14.7 MeV protons from the 3He(d,p)4He reaction was used to extract the astrophysical S factor. Results of the experiment performed at the Center for High Energy Density Science at The University of Texas at Austin will be presented.

Temperature measurements of cluster fusion plasmas using D −3 He or CD4 −3 He mixtures on the Texas Petawatt

We present a novel way of determining the plasma temperature in a laser-cluster fusion experiment on the Texas Petawatt laser, which uses the ratio of the 2.45 MeV neutron and 14.7 MeV proton yields.