Speaker
Description
The thermodynamic conditions of plasma density, temperature, pressure, and the neutron density during the implosion of a deuterium-tritium (DT)-filled capsule by laser-induced inertial confinement at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) constitute a unique stellar-like laboratory environment. In this study, we investigated neutron-induced reactions on Ar seeds added to the DT capsule, specifically the 40Ar(n,2n)39Ar (268 years) and 40Ar(n,γ)41Ar (110 min) reactions; we also searched for the signature of a rapid two neutron capture 40Ar(2n,γ)42Ar (32.9 years) reaction, similar to the r-process occurring in stellar explosive nucleosynthesis. We conducted in parallel direct experiments to measure for the first time the total cross-section of the 40Ar(n,2n)39Ar reaction using a 14-MeV neutron activation. The resulting long-lived argon 39,42Ar isotopic residues were analyzed by Noble Gas Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the ATLAS accelerator (Argonne National Laboratory) while shorter-lived 41Ar was detected by -spectrometry shortly after implosion at NIF. Preliminary results of 39,41,42Ar yields and comparison with simulations will be presented.
The Authors acknowledge U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02- 06CH11357. This research used resources of ANL’s ATLAS facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Pazy Foundation (Israel), USA-Israel Binational Foundation (BSF Grant Nr. 2020136), Israel Science Foundation (ISF Grant Nr 3265/24), Career Research Program (Fusion Energy Sciences) under Grant No. FWP SCW1658, National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF PHY-2011890 and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Award No. 31310019M0037 are gratefully acknowledged.
