Enhanced Model for Fast Ignition

Target interactions in Fast Ignition, a significant Department of Energy initiative, have proven too difficult to model with standard plasma simulation codes, due to the high densities of the compressed cores and the complexities of the collisional, relativisitic electron transport initiated by laser absorption. New Implicit/hybrid codes can properly treat these conditions, but their optimal form is still undergoing intense research, their application has been limited, and their development and distribution has seriously lagged the more standard but less capable techniques. The overall objective of Phase I and II of this project is to further develop, refine, and extend a particularly successful implicit/hybrid code, ePLAS, distributing it throughout the Department of Energy community, academia, and industry, to hasten success in achieving fusion energy via Fast Ignition. Early versions of the new computer simulation model were distributed to users throughout the fusion energy community for testing and near term applications. The Phase II project will complete further improvements in light coupling, atomic physics, multiple ion capabilities, and fast ion modeling. Thermonuclear burn diagnostics will be added, and personal computer parallelism will be explored. The user interface will be improved to facilitate simplified physics studies and experimental analysis, and wide use of the code. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: Commercial benefits from this project include the development of new modeling capabilities embodied in a commercial code that can be broadly distributed at minimal cost to aid academia, the National Labs, and industry.