High energy density plasma experiments to study the T+T and <sup>3</sup>He+<sup>3</sup>He six-nucleon systems at OMEGA and the NIF
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Abstract
Thermonuclear reaction rates and nuclear processes are explored traditionally in accelerator experiments, which are difficult to execute at conditions relevant to Stellar and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. High-Energy-Density (HED) plasmas mimic astrophysical environments and can complement accelerator experiments. We describe HED experiments1,2 to study the T+T reaction at the OMEGA laser, and the 3He+3He reaction at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Neutron spectra from the T+T reaction at ion temperatures from 4 to 18 keV, corresponding to center-of-mass (c-m) energies from 16 to 50 keV, show the 5He ground state resonant peak at 8.6 MeV being stronger at the higher than at the lower energy.3 This indicates a reaction mechanism that must involve resonances and/or higher angular momenta than L=0. Preliminary 3He+3He reaction data at c-m energies from 60-120 keV also indicate that the underlying physics changes with c-m energy.
[1] M. Gatu Johnson et al., Phys. Plasmas 24, 041407 (2017).
[2] M. Gatu Johnson et al., Phys. Plasmas 25, 056303 (2018).
[3] M. Gatu Johnson et al., submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (2018).
*This work was supported in part by the US DOE, LLE, and LLNL.
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Presenters
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Maria Gatu Johnson
- Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT