Application of proton radiography in experiments of relevance to inertial confinement fusion

Multi-Mev proton beams generated by target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) during the interaction of an ultra intense laser beam (I≥10¹⁹ W/cm²) with a thin metallic foil (thickness of the order of a few tens of microns) are particularly suited as a particle probe for laser plasma experiments. The proton imaging technique employs a laser-driven proton beam in a point-projection imaging scheme as a diagnostic tool for the detection of electric fields in such experiments. The proton probing technique has been applied in experiments of relevance to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) such as laser heated gasbags and laser-hohlraum experiments. The data provides direct information on the onset of laser beam filamentation and on the plasma expansion in the hohlraum’s interior, and confirms the suitability and usefulness of this technique as an ICF diagnostic.     

The Darwin Direct Implicit Particle-in-Cell (DADIPIC) Method for Simulation of Low Frequency Plasma Phenomena

We describe a new algorithm for simulating low frequency, kinetic phenomena in plasmas. Darwin direct implicit particle-in-cell (DADIPIC), as its name implies, is a combination of the Darwin and direct implicit methods. Through the Darwin method the hyperbolic Maxwell's equations are reformulated into a set of elliptic equations. Propagating light waves do not exist in the formulation so the Courant constraint on the time step is eliminated. The direct implicit method is applied only to the electrostatic field with the result that electrostatic plasma oscillations do not have to be resolved for stability. With the elimination of these constraints spatial and temporal discretization can be much larger than that possible with explicit, electrodynamic PIC. We discuss the algorithms for pushing the particles and solving for the fields in 2D cartesian geometry. We also detail boundary conditions for conductors and dielectrics. Finally, we present two test cases, electron cyclotron waves and collisionless heating in inductively coupled plasmas. For these test cases DADIPIC shows agreement with analytic kinetic theory and good energy conservation characteristics.     

The “sources” of plasma physics

This paper is the text of the Plasma Science and Applications Committee Prize address given in Santa Fe, NM, on June 7, 1994. The principal thesis is that major advances in the development of the science of plasmas have frequently been triggered by the invention of a new plasma source. Examples are given from the work of many colleagues in basic plasma research. A retrospective of the author's experiments on basic plasma physics, magnetic fusion, and inertial fusion is given, many of these sharing the common theme of transverse electric fields. The author's present and future work concern new plasma sources that are needed for the application of plasma technology to materials processing     

Application Based Construction and Optimization of Substitution Boxes Over 2D Mixed Chaotic Maps

Chaotic maps play a vital role in the development of cryptographic techniques being used in today’s world. Efficient and highly secure algorithms can be constructed based on chaotic maps. Chaotic maps have the intrinsic property of being highly sensitive to initial conditions. In this paper, we have presented a novel scheme for construction and optimization of substitution boxes (S-boxes) based on mixed two dimensional (2D) chaotic maps in which cryptographic properties of S-boxes are optimized based on initial conditions of their parent 2D chaotic map. The proposed scheme and the resulting substitution boxes are analyzed with existing cryptanalysis techniques and their results have been compared with some other algorithms available in literature. The proposed scheme has been found to be more efficacious than other algorithms. The outcomes of security analysis indicate that our proposed technique and resulting optimized non-linear component in the current era of information technology.

     

Adaptive higher-order finite element methods for transient PDE problems based on embedded higher-order implicit Runge–Kutta methods

We present a new class of adaptivity algorithms for time-dependent partial differential equations (PDE) that combine adaptive higher-order finite elements (hp-FEM) in space with arbitrary (embedded, higher-order, implicit) Runge–Kutta methods in time. Weak formulation is only created for the stationary residual, and the Runge–Kutta methods are specified via their Butcher’s tables. Around 30 Butcher’s tables for various Runge–Kutta methods with numerically verified orders of local and global truncation errors are provided. A time-dependent benchmark problem with known exact solution that contains a sharp moving front is introduced, and it is used to compare the quality of seven embedded implicit higher-order Runge–Kutta methods. Numerical experiments also include a comparison of adaptive low-order FEM and hp-FEM with dynamically changing meshes. All numerical results presented in this paper were obtained using the open source library Hermes (http://www.hpfem.org/hermes) and they are reproducible in the Networked Computing Laboratory (NCLab) at http://www.nclab.com.     

Stabilization of interchange modes by rotating magnetic fields

Interchange modes have been a key limiting instability for many magnetic confinement fusion configurations. In previous studies intended to deal with these ubiquitous instabilities, complex, transport enhancing, minimum-B producing coils were added to the otherwise simple linear mirror plasma. Possible solutions for returning to a simple symmetric mirror configuration, such as ponderomotive fields, are weak and difficult to apply. A new method is demonstrated here for the first time, utilizing rotating magnetic fields that are simple to apply and highly effective. A simple and easily comprehensible theory has also been developed to explain the remarkable stabilizing properties. Although this work has been performed on field reversed configurations, it should have a wide application to other confinement schemes, and could become a cornerstone for high-beta plasma stability.     

The PLM Plasma Device for Tests of Tungsten with Powerful Stationary Heat Plasma Loads

The PLM plasma device for plasma testing of refractory metals and materials of a fusion reactor (like the fusion neutron source and DEMO) within the framework of the domestic fusion program and the ITER project was constructed at the National Research University Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 2017. The device is a linear trap with a multicusp magnetic confinement of plasma. At the facility, tests of tungsten and experiments are being carried out aimed at creating a technology for producing a highly porous surface structure of refractory metals such as tungsten and molybdenum, including those with a fuzzy surface structure with the size of elements of the structure up to 50 nm.     

热辐射输运问题的隐式蒙特卡罗方法求解

热辐射与物质相互作用及辐射光子在物质中的传输是惯性约束聚变研究中的重要课题. 介绍了基于隐式蒙特卡罗方法的辐射输运方程,在该方程的积分-微分形式基础上,推导了利于蒙特卡罗方法模拟的等价的积分输运方程;基于积分方程设计数值模拟流程,编写三维蒙特卡罗数值模拟程序;针对热辐射输运典型问题及benchmark问题开展了数值实验,计算结果验证了方法的适应性及程序的正确性. 关键词： 热辐射 惯性约束聚变 输运方程 隐式蒙特卡罗     

Visualization techniques in plasma numerical simulations

Numerical simulations of plasma processes usually yield a huge amount of raw numerical data. Information about electric and magnetic fields and particle positions and velocities can be typically obtained. There are two major ways of elaborating these data. First of them is calledplasma diagnostics. We can calculate average values, variances, correlations of variables, etc. These results may be directly comparable with experiments and serve as the typical quantitative output of plasma simulations. The second possibility is theplasma visualization. The results are qualitative only, but serve as vivid display of phenomena in the plasma followed-up. An experience with visualizing electric and magnetic fields via Line Integral Convolution method is described in the first part of the paper. The LIC method serves for visualization of vector fields in two dimensional section of the three dimensional plasma. The field values can be known only in grid points of three-dimensional grid. The second part of the paper is devoted to the visualization techniques of the charged particle motion. The colour tint can be used for particle’s temperature representation. The motion can be visualized by a trace fading away with the distance from the particle. In this manner the impressive animations of the particle motion can be achieved.     

The Visible Intensified Cameras for Plasma Imaging in the TJ‐II Stellarator

Visible cameras are widely used in fusion experiments for diagnosis and for machine safety issues. They are generally used to monitor the plasma emission, but are also sensible to surface Blackbody radiation and Bremsstrahlung. Fast or high speed cameras capable of operating in the 10⁵ frames per second speed range are today commercially available and offer the opportunity to plasma fusion researchers of two‐dimensional (2D) imaging of fast phenomena such as turbulence, ELMs, disruptions, dust, etc. The tracking of these fast phenomena requires short exposure times down to the μ s range and the light intensity can be often near the signal to noise ratio limit especially in low plasma emission regions such as the far SOL Additionally, when using interference filters to monitor, e.g. impurity line emission, the photon flux is strongly reduced and the emission cannot be imaged at high speed. Therefore, the use of image intensifiers that amplify the light intensity onto the camera sensor can be of great help. The present work describes the use of intensifiers in the visible fast cameras of TJ‐II stellarator. We have achieved spectroscopic plasma imaging of filtered impurity atomic line emission at short exposure times down to the 10 μ s range depending on atomic line and concentration. Additionally, plasma movies at velocities of 2x10⁵ frames per second near the camera operation limit can be recorded with exposure times well below 1 μ s with sufficient signal to noise ratio. Although an increasing degradation of the image quality appears when raising the light amplification, an effective gain of up to two orders of magnitude of the light intensity is feasible for many applications (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Inertial fusion science and technology for the 21 st century

This paper reviews the leading edge of the basic and applied science that use high-intensity facilities. The more than 15 000 experiments on the Nova laser since 1985 and many thousands more on other laser, particle beam, and pulsed power facilities around the world have established the new laboratory field of high-energy-density plasma physics and have furthered development of inertial fusion. High-brightness femtosecond lasers have enabled the study of matter in conditions previously unachievable on earth. These experiments and advanced calculations have established the specifications for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) and have enhanced scientific fields such as laboratory astrophysics. Science and technology developed in inertial fusion have found near-term commercial use, have enabled steady progress toward the goal of fusion ignition and gain in the laboratory, and have opened up new fields of study for the 21 ^st century.     

Plasma-facing materials for fusion devices

In a future D/T fusion reactor the walls of the vessel containing the magnetically confined hot plasma have to stand simultaneously very high power, particle and neutron loads. In today’s high temperature plasma experiments at the areas of the highest load, i.e. the divertor and the limiters, W, Mo and Carbon (CFC) are used and Be, W, Mo, Inconel and stainless steel are at the other wall areas. These materials are also envisaged for future bigger fusion experiments, such as ITER [1–3]. The resistance of these materials to the different expected higher loads in a fusion reactor is only partly known and more investigations are needed with respect to find better materials and/or a modification of the divertor.     

Heating mechanisms in short-pulse laser-driven cone targets

The fast ignitor is a modern approach to laser fusion that uses a short-pulse laser to initiate thermonuclear burn. In its simplest form the laser launches relativistic electrons that carry its energy to a precompressed fusion target. Cones have been used to give the light access to the dense target core through the low-density ablative cloud surrounding it. Here the ANTHEM implicit hybrid simulation model shows that the peak ion temperatures measured in recent cone target experiments arose chiefly from return current joule heating, mildly supplemented by relativistic electron drag. Magnetic fields augment this heating only slightly, but capture hot electrons near the cone surface and force the hot electron stream into filaments.     

Hybrid Two-Dimensional Electron Transport in Self-Consistent Electromagnetic Fields

The paper outlines features of the implicit hybrid simulation code ANTHEM, which uniquely provides histories for the transport and deposition of suprathermal and thermal electrons in laserproduced plasmas. The code models two-dimensional electron transport through steep density gradients and across contiguous collisional and collisionless target regions with the plasma dynamics dominated by self-consistent E and B fields. ANTHEM employs separate Eulerian fluid ion and thermal electron treatments and models suprathermal electrons as either a third fluid or as a set of collisional particle-in-cell (PIC) particles. We outline new techniques required to obtain implicit electromagnetic fields in two spatial dimensions permitting time steps well in excess of the local plasma period. A new implicit scattering model is discussed. The utility of our approach is demonstrated with sample applications to collisional surface transport on foil targets.     

Review of plasma turbulence experiments

Understandings of turbulent plasma have been developed along with nuclear fusion research for more than a half century. Long international research has produced discoveries concerning turbulent plasma that allow us to notice the hidden nature and physics questions that could contribute to other scientific fields and the development of technologies. Guiding concepts have been established up to now that stimulate investigations on turbulent plasma. Research based on concepts concerning symmetry breaking and global linkage requires observing the entire field of plasma turbulence for an ultimate understanding of plasma. This article reviews the achievements as well as contemporary problems regarding turbulence experiments associated with strongly magnetized plasmas in the last and present century, and introduces forthcoming experimental issues, including new diagnostics and physics-oriented devices related to plasma turbulence.     

A hybrid multilevel method for high-order discretization of the Euler equations on unstructured meshes

Higher order discretization has not been widely successful in industrial applications to compressible flow simulation. Among several reasons for this, one may identify the lack of tailor-suited, best-practice relaxation techniques that compare favorably to highly tuned lower order methods, such as finite-volume schemes. In this paper we investigate solution algorithms in conjunction with high-order Spectral Difference discretization for the Euler equations, using such techniques as multigrid and matrix-free implicit relaxation methods. In particular we present a novel hybrid multilevel relaxation method that combines (optionally matrix-free) implicit relaxation techniques with explicit multistage smoothing using geometric multigrid. Furthermore, we discuss efficient implementation of these concepts using such tools as automatic differentiation.     

适合于生物图像的图像融合算法研究

图像融合作为一种有效的信息融合的技术,已广泛用于军事、遥感、机器视觉和医学图像等领域。本文讨论了三种基于像素级的图像融合算法：Ｐ加权平均,Ｔｏｅｔ算法和基于小波变换的算法;采用四种评价融合效果的量化判据：标准偏差,平均误差,峰值信噪比（ｓ／Ｎ）ｐ和熵差,将三种图像融合算法用于生物图像中细胞荧光图像和透射图像的融合,量化评价结果和视觉判断均说明,对于以细胞荧光图像和透射图像研究对象,需突出荧光图像的