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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Atomic kinetics of laboratory photoionized plasmas relevant to astrophysics. Final report

The major goal of this project was to study the atomic and radiation physics of photoionized plasmas driven by a broadband x-ray flux and its impact on plasma x-ray heating and ionization, emissivity and opacity, and radiation-hydrodynamics. This problem is relevant to the physics of accretion disks surrounding black holes, x-ray binaries, and active galactic nuclei in astrophysics. In addition, it is also important for understanding non-equilibrium laboratory plasmas driven by a distribution of photons. To this end, and motivated by previous and ongoing gas-cell experiments performed by the PI at the Z facility of Sandia National Laboratories, we developed a new experimental platform at the 1MA Zebra pulsed power accelerator of the University of Nevada, Reno based on using a gas jet produced by a supersonic nozzle. The gas jet is turned into a photoionized plasma driven by the x- ray flux from a wire-array z-pinch. Establishing this new experimental platform at Zebra was a major goal of this project. In addition, we have also dedicated effort to continue complementary experiments at the Z facility using the gas-cell photoionized plasma set up with support from the Fundamental Science Program at Z as well as to perform data processing and analysis, and theory and modeling simulations, including electron kinetics and radiation-hydrodynamics. Since we seek to test and establish what physics models are needed to describe photoionized plasma guided by experimental observation, these complementary experimental efforts were central to achieving the goals of this project.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

First observation of increased DT yield over prediction due to addition of hydrogen

Here, in a number of reported instances, implosions utilizing fuel mixtures have resulted in anomalously low fusion yields below those predicted by radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. Inter-species ion diffusion has been suggested as a possible cause of the observed yield degradation in fuel mixture implosions. An experimental platform utilizing hydro-equivalent deuterium–tritium (DT), deuterium–tritium–hydrogen (DTH), and deuterium-tritium-helium3 (DT 3 He) capsule implosions was developed to determine whether the inter-species ion diffusion theory may describe the resulting fuel mixture implosion behavior. The implosion experiments were performed at the Omega laser facility. X-ray images and shell areal density diagnostics results show that the hydro-equivalent three capsules (DT, DTH, and DT 3 He) have similar compression behavior. However, nuclear yield deviation was observed from the scaling determined using a fusion yield formula. In the DT 3 He mixture, a reduced yield of a factor of 0.65 ± 0.13 was observed, which is similar to a yield reduction observed in D 3 He mixture by Rygg et al. (i.e., Rygg effect). In contrast, in the DTH mixture, a factor of 1.17 ±0.15 yield increase was observed, which we named the inverse Rygg effect. The yield increase observed in the DTH mixture is consistent with the inter-species ion diffusion theory where lighter H diffuses away from the core and concentrated DT in the core produces higher yield. An inter-species ion diffusion model, the Zimmerman–Paquette–Kagan–Zhdanov model, implemented in a Lagrangian radiation-hydrodynamics fluid code, was also used to analyze the present data, without the need to assume hydrodynamic equivalence of the capsules, but it does not completely explain the DTH or DT 3 He capsules although its effects are in the correct direction. Simulation-based Bayesian inference was used in the latter analysis to quantify the uncertainty in the numerical simulations. The simulation-based analysis resulted in an inferred Rygg-effect yield decrease factor of 0.91 ± 0.02 for the DT 3 He mixture, and an inferred inverse-Rygg yield increase factor of 1.21 ± 0.04 for the DTH mixture, based on simulations ignoring ion diffusion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Impact of in situ nuclear networks and atomic opacities on neutron star merger ejecta dynamics, nucleosynthesis, and kilonovae

Context. Binary neutron star merger (BNSM) ejecta are key sites of rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis and they produce kilonovae powered by the radioactive decay of freshly synthesized nuclei. Modeling their evolution requires multi-physics simulations involving hydrodynamics, nuclear reactions, and radiative processes. The impact of nuclear burning and atomic opacity is poorly understood and often treated with simplified prescriptions. Aims. We systematically investigate different treatments of nuclear heating, particle thermalization, and atomic opacities in radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of BNSM ejecta and kilonova light curves. Methods. Ejecta profiles from long-term numerical-relativity simulations of asymmetric neutron star binaries with a massive neutron star remnant were evolved to ∼30 days using a 2D ray-by-ray approach. We compared simplified heating-rate and thermalization prescriptions with in situ Nuclear reaction Network (NN) calculations that track nuclear energy deposition and include a composition-dependent thermalization scheme. We also contrasted various gray opacity models with a frequency-dependent treatment based on atomic calculations. Results. Coupling NN and hydrodynamics significantly affects nucleosynthesis and kilonova emission. Assuming homologous expansion alters abundance evolution and produces a narrower, less populated second r-process peak and a third peak shifted to higher mass numbers. The back-reaction of nuclear heating affects the temperature evolution enough to delay and redden the early (t∼ hours) kilonova peaks. A constant thermalization efficiency underestimates and reddens the early emission while overestimating the late-time luminosity compared to the composition-dependent treatment. Analytical opacity prescriptions yield a more extended, colder photosphere, resulting in dimmer, redder kilonovae at early times (t≲ hour), while the delayed recession of the photosphere prolongs the red emission at t ≳ 5 days. Conclusions. Coupling hydrodynamics to an in situ NN is crucial for reliable nucleosynthesis and kilonova predictions. Resolving the first several hundred milliseconds of the hydrodynamics is essential for robust nucleosynthesis calculations. Composition-dependent thermalization and frequency-dependent, atomic-physics-based opacities are needed to accurately capture the temperature evolution of the ejecta and the brightness and color evolution of the kilonova. Calibrated analytic nuclear-power fits with simplified thermalization and opacity prescriptions can still reproduce the density and temperature evolution of the ejecta.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The effects of pre-plasma scale length on the relativistic electron beam directionality

The effects of pre-plasmas on the electron beam directionality was experimentally and numerically investigated. Single material and layered targets made of Ti and/or CH were used to simultaneously measure high-energy (≥3 MeV) electrons along two directions, pre-pulse energy and pre-plasma density. The electron directionality is quantified by using a new parameter, the electron energy ratio of the total kinetic energies along the two directions. Measurements and radiation–hydrodynamic (RH) simulations show that a large (≥3.5 μm) plasma scale length at the critical surface enhances electrons along the laser axis, and such pre-plasma conditions could only be achieved with the CH targets. Particle-in-cell simulations were performed on the RH generated pre-plasmas from Ti and CH targets, and the results show that the CH target provided conditions for higher forward momentum gains by electrons. First, the CH target allowed longer distances for electrons to interact with laser. Second, the intense laser pulse modified the critical surface, but the resulting surface differed. The CH target resulted in a smooth surface where a retro-reflection was observed while the Ti target resulted in a rippled surface that scattered the reflected light. As results, the CH electrons gained higher forward momentum via a direct-laser-acceleration in the counter propagating laser fields. So the results presented in this article show a way of controlling the high-energy electron directionality.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of mid- Z gas fill on dynamics and performance of shock-driven implosions at the OMEGA laser

Shock-driven implosions with 100% deuterium (D 2 ) gas fill compared to implosions with 50:50 nitrogen-deuterium (N 2 ⁢D 2 ) gas fill have been performed at the OMEGA laser facility to test the impact of the added mid-Ζ fill gas on implosion performance. Ion temperature (Τ ion ) as inferred from the width of measured DD-neutron spectra is seen to be 34%±6% higher for the N 2⁢ D 2 implosions than for the D 2 -only case, while the DD-neutron yield from the D 2 -only implosion is 7.2±0.5 times higher than from the N 2⁢ D 2 gas fill. The T ion enhancement for N 2 ⁢D 2 is observed in spite of the higher Z, which might be expected to lead to higher radiative loss, and higher shock strength for the D 2 -only versus N 2 ⁢D 2 implosions due to lower mass, and is understood in terms of increased shock heating of N compared to D, heat transfer from N to D prior to burn, and limited amount of ion-electron-equilibration-mediated additional radiative loss due to the added higher-Z material. Further, this picture is supported by interspecies equilibration timescales for these implosions, constrained by experimental observables. The one-dimensional (1D) kinetic Vlasov-Fokker-Planck code ifp and the radiation hydrodynamic simulation codes hyades (1D) and xrage [1D, two-dimensional (2D)] are brought to bear to understand the observed yield ratio. Comparing measurements and simulations, the yield loss in the N 2 ⁢D 2 implosions relative to the pure D 2 -fill implosion is determined to result from the reduced amount of D 2 in the fill (fourfold effect on yield) combined with a lower fraction of the D 2 fuel being hot enough to burn in the N 2 ⁢D 2 case. The experimental yield and T ion ratio observations are relatively well matched by the kinetic simulations, which suggest interspecies diffusion is responsible for the lower fraction of hot D 2 in the N 2 ⁢D 2 relative to the D 2 -only case. The simulated absolute yields are higher than measured; a comparison of 1D versus 2D XRAGE simulations suggest that this can be explained by dimensional effects. The hydrodynamic simulations suggest that radiative losses primarily impact the implosion edges, with ion-electron equilibration times being too long in the implosion cores. The observations of increased T ion and limited additional yield loss (on top of the fourfold expected from the difference in D content) for the N 2 ⁢D 2 versus D 2 -only fill suggest it is feasible to develop the platform for studying CNO-cycle-relevant nuclear reactions in a plasma environment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Physics of the Serrano Sn Transport Package

Serrano is a software package for simulating photon transport in moving material. It presently supports 1-D, unstructured 2-D for a wide variety of element types, and 3-D for tetrahedra and hexahedra. The package is designed to be a component of larger codes, such as radiation hydrodynamics codes. Only the radiation transport equations are solved by Serrano itself.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Simulating dust grain-radiation coupling on a moving mesh

ABSTRACT We present a model for the interaction between dust and radiation fields in the radiation hydrodynamic code arepo-rt, which solves the moment-based radiative transfer equations on an unstructured moving mesh. Dust is directly treated using live simulation particles, each of which represent a population of grains that are coupled to hydrodynamic motion through a drag force. We introduce methods to calculate radiation pressure on and photon absorption by dust grains. By including a direct treatment of dust, we are able to calculate dust opacities and update radiation fields self-consistently based on the local dust distribution. This hybrid scheme coupling dust particles to an unstructured mesh for radiation is validated using several test problems with known analytic solutions, including dust driven via spherically symmetric flux from a constant luminosity source and photon absorption from radiation incident on a thin layer of dust. Our methods are compatible with the multifrequency scheme in arepo-rt, which treats UV, optical photons as single scattered and IR photons as multi scattered. At IR wavelengths, we model heating of and thermal emission from dust. Dust and gas are not assumed to be in local thermodynamic equilibrium but transfer energy through collisional exchange. We estimate dust temperatures by balancing these dust-radiation and dust-gas energy exchange rates. This framework for coupling dust and radiation can be applied in future radiation hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Design of experiments to spectroscopically characterize radiation flow in stochastic media

Precise characterization of experimental radiation flow is required to validate the high energy density physics models, numerical methods, and codes that are used to simulate radiation-hydrodynamics phenomena such as thermal radiation transport in stochastic media. The Cassio code is used to simulate thermal radiation flow through inhomogeneous, stochastic-media-foam configurations containing optically thick clumps dispersed within an optically thin background aerogel. Cassio can model small inhomogeneous problems directly, but most problems require approximations to meet computer limitations on run-times and memory usage. Various examples of these approximations are methods that produce, in one calculation, an ensemble-averaged solution and associated standard deviation; reduced spatial dimensionality with approximate geometries; and full material homogenization with no geometric detail. Cassio simulations are used to design experiments at the OMEGA-60 Laser Facility that can measure the radiation flow using the spatially resolved COAX absorption spectroscopy diagnostic. The experimental platforms flow radiation through foam targets ranging from a background-only aerogel, to a single configuration of a specified stochastic medium, to a fully homogenized foam of the background and clump materials. Under constant total clump mass, larger clumps (here, larger than 10 μm diameter) will mix more slowly with the background such that the bulk radiation flow is faster than it would be in a fully homogenized material. The COAX platform can be used to infer temperature and density profiles in both the background material and clumps, simultaneously, and therefore to differentiate radiation flow in a range of stochastic and homogeneous media.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Modeling thermal radiation waves in silica plasmas for the Mooncat NIF experiment

The Mooncat experiment on the National Ignition Facility uses a laser-driven hohlraum to create a thermal radiation wave in a titanium-doped silica plasma. The titanium dopant enables absorption spectroscopy measurements to infer the temperature of the wave as it propagates. This measurement can be used to constrain multi-physics simulation codes to better understand when simulations do not match an experiment. In this paper, we present radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the thermal radiation wave in the first full-platform shots of the Mooncat experiment. We examine the important parameters of the simulation, focusing on the radiation temperature source, the material model of the silica plasma as it pertains to radiation transport, and lateral leakage through a beryllium tube enclosing the silica. We compare different simulation modeling strategies to an analytic model of diffusive radiation transport and find that the simulation agrees with the analytic model when it is sufficiently simplified. These simulations show how radiation energy couples to matter to develop a shock wave in a radiative heat wave, an important topic in astrophysics and nuclear fusion plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Density evolution after shock release from laser-driven polystyrene (CH) targets in inertial confinement fusion

The evolution of the plasma density in the rarefaction wave formed after a laser-driven shock is released from a CH foil was measured using optical interferometry. Here, it was found that the plasma density profile is very sensitive to the conditions at the back surface of the foil before the shock release. Dedicated experiments demonstrated that radiation preheat by coronal x-rays caused early expansion of the back surface and faster expansion of the rarefaction wave. Radiation-hydrodynamics simulations with accurate modeling of radiation preheat from the plasma corona are in good agreement with the experimental results. The early expansion of material interfaces due to coronal x-ray preheat must be evaluated in designing and interpreting laser-driven inertial confinement fusion experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cross-code comparison of the impact of the fill tube on high yield implosions on the National Ignition Facility

Fill tubes are used to inject deuterium and tritium fuel into inertial confinement fusion capsules fielded on the National Ignition Facility. These fill tubes have been shown to have a detrimental effect on capsule performance, primarily by introducing a low-density pathway into the central fuel region that enables the jetting of ablation material into the hot spot. Due to the complexity of the highly nonlinear flow associated with the fill tube and the challenge of diagnosing the evolution of the fill tube jet late in the implosion experiments, the uncertainty in how this perturbation source evolves is great. In this work, we report on the results of a detailed code comparison performed to understand uncertainties in computational modeling of the impact of fill tubes on implosion performance. The study employed two radiation-hydrodynamics codes, HYDRA and xRAGE, which employ very different meshing strategies and hydrodynamics solvers, as well as two radiation transport methodologies, discrete ordinates and multi-group diffusion. Our results demonstrate generally good agreement between codes through most of the implosion although they indicate sensitivity to opacity averaging methods. Late in the implosion, differences arise in the distribution and amount of contaminant although these differences have a remarkably small impact on the amount of yield reduction due to the fill tube. While these results demonstrate sensitivity in fill tube modeling to algorithmic choices, the observed differences between codes are small relative to known sensitivities due to expected variations in the fill tube geometry. Finally, we have developed a methodology for performing multi-group diffusion simulations that show good agreement with the more accurate discrete ordinates method

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

AthenaK: A Performance-portable Version of the Athena++ Adaptive Mesh Refinement Framework

We describe AthenaK: a new implementation of the Athena++ block-based adaptive mesh refinement framework using the Kokkos programming model. Finite volume methods for Newtonian, special relativistic, and general relativistic (GR) hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and GR-radiation hydrodynamics and MHD, as well as a module for evolving Lagrangian tracer or charged test particles (e.g., cosmic rays) are implemented using the framework. In two companion papers, we describe (1) a new solver for the Einstein equations based on the Z4c formalism, and (2) a GRMHD solver in dynamical spacetimes also implemented using the framework, enabling new applications in numerical relativity. By adopting Kokkos, the code can be run on virtually any hardware, including CPUs, GPUs from multiple vendors, and emerging Advanced RISC Machine processors. AthenaK shows excellent performance and weak scaling, achieving over 1 billion cell updates per second for hydrodynamics in three dimensions on a single NVIDIA Grace Hopper processor. It does this with a typical parallel efficiency of 80% on 65,536 AMD GPUs on the OLCF Frontier system. Such performance portability enables AthenaK to leverage modern exascale computing systems for challenging applications in astrophysical fluid dynamics, numerical relativity, and multimessenger astrophysics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

New Yield Estimates for Nuclear Detonations Over Water

One of the primary methods used by the United States to estimate the yields of atmospheric nuclear tests performed in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s was to film each detonation with a high-speed camera, measure the blast radius as a function of time, and then use Taylor’s spherical blast wave equation to calculate the source energy (i.e., the yield). For surface detonations, the yield in Taylor’s equation was assumed to be twice as large as the actual yield to account for the energy reflected from the surface, assuming the ground was a perfect reflector. Recent simulations of surface detonations over water (referred to as barge shots) have shown that Taylor’s equation must be modified further to account for material entrainment and heat losses. We have computed this lost energy using a high-order radiation-hydrodynamics code to determine the reduction in blast radius vs. time. By analyzing simulation data in the same manner as film data, we have determined that a yield correction factor of 1.27± 0.04 should be applied to the barge shots.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2020

Magnetization around mix jets entering inertial confinement fusion fuel

Engineering features are known to cause jets of ablator materials to enter the fuel hot-spot in inertial confinement fusion implosions. The Biermann battery mechanism wraps them in a self-generated magnetic field. Here we show that higher-Z jets have an additional thermoelectric magnetic source term that is not present for hydrogen jets, verified here through a kinetic simulation. It has similar magnitude to the Biermann term. We then include this in an extended magneto-hydrodynamic approach to post process an xRAGE radiation-hydrodynamic implosion simulation. The simulation includes an accurate model for the capsule fill tube, producing a dense carbon jet that becomes wrapped in a 4000 T magnetic field. A simple spherical carbon mix model shows that this insulates the electron heat conduction enough to cause contraction of the jet to an optically thick equilibrium. The denser magnetized jet hydrodynamics could change its core penetration and therefore the final mix mass, which is known to be well correlated with fusion yield degradation. Fully exploring this will require self-consistent magneto-hydrodynamic simulations. Experimental signatures of this self-magnetization may emerge in the high energy neutron spectrum.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

thornado-hydro: A Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Supernova Hydrodynamics with Nuclear Equations of State

This paper describes algorithms for non-relativistic hydrodynamics in the toolkit for high-order neutrino radiation hydrodynamics (thornado), which is being developed for multiphysics simulations of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and related problems with Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) methods. More specifically, thornado employs a spectral type nodal collocation approximation, and we have extended limiters — a slope limiter to prevent non-physical oscillations and a bound-enforcing limiter to prevent non-physical states — from the standard RKDG framework to be able to accommodate a tabulated nuclear equation of state (EoS). To demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithms with a nuclear EoS, we first present numerical results from basic test problems in idealized settings in one and two spatial dimensions, employing Cartesian, spherical-polar, and cylindrical coordinates. Then, we apply the RKDG method to the problem of adiabatic collapse, shock formation, and shock propagation in spherical symmetry, initiated with a 15 M ⊙ progenitor. Herein, we find that the extended limiters improve the fidelity and robustness of the RKDG method in idealized settings. The bound-enforcing limiter improves robustness of the RKDG method in the adiabatic collapse application, while we find that slope limiting in characteristic fields is vulnerable to structures in the EoS — more specifically, in the phase transition from nuclei and nucleons to bulk nuclear matter. The success of these applications marks an important step toward applying RKDG methods to more realistic CCSN simulations with thornado in the future.

Nuclear astrophysics (1129)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Detrimental effects and mitigation of the joint feature in double shell implosion simulations

Double shell capsules provide an attractive option in inertial confinement fusion experiments due to their potential for achieving a low-convergence, robust burn. However, these designs suffer from symmetry degradation and accompanying reduced fuel confinement due to the currently necessary joint between the two hemispheres of the outer shell. Here, the gap widens as a result of the excess ablation pressure produced by x rays that penetrate the joint during the drive phase, and this perturbation grows and imprints onto the inner shell during the collision. xRAGE Eulerian radiation-hydrodynamic simulations predict significant reductions in deuterium–tritium fusion yields compared to joint-less simulations when the depth of the outer joint is increased, whereas the performance is less sensitive to the depth of the inner gap. Here we examine the technique of plating the insides of the outer gap with a high-Z material to mitigate the impact of this feature. Gold-plating in quantities comparable to or exceeding the “missing” outer shell mass shows promise toward restoring both implosion symmetry and yield closer to the joint-less levels, and synthetic diagnostics suggest that high-energy x-ray radiographs can capture this shape retention of the inner and outer shells in experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

The design of a photoionization front experiment using the Z-Machine as a driving source and estimated measurements

Radiation-driven heat fronts are present in the early universe during reionization, the circumstellar medium of supernovae, and in high-energy-density physics experiments. Dedicated experiments to observe and diagnose the behavior of these types of heat fronts can improve our understanding of these phenomena. A simulation study of photoionization fronts using the HELIOS-CR radiation hydrodynamics code provides an experimental design for the Z-Machine at Sandia National Laboratory using a measurement-calibrated input radiation flux to drive the photoionization front. The simulations use detailed atomic physics and non-diffusive radiation transport in 1D to determine an optimal gas pressure of 0.75 atm for an experiment in N gas as well as the effects of increasing the thickness of the window that seals the gas cell. Post-processing of these simulations demonstrates that ratios of atomic rate coefficients place the heat front in a physics regime where photoionization dominates the energy deposition. Here, to see the sensitivity of the simulations to changes in the model and spatial grid, this analysis performed resolution, atomic model detail, and radiation transport angular grid studies showing less than 10% deviation from the nominal model for increased complexity, when possible. An effort to emulate 3D geometric effects on the radiation flux using an artificial attenuation scheme has shown that, even for conservative estimates of the flux, simulations still produce a photoionization front. Estimations of a streaked, visible spectroscopy measurement using SPECT3D showed that line emission measurements are present early in time and that later in time thermal emission should become dominant.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

How numerical simulations helped to achieve breakeven on the NIF

The inertial confinement fusion program relies upon detailed simulations with inertial confinement fusion (ICF) codes to design targets and to interpret the experimental results. These simulations treat as much physics from essential principles as is practical, including laser deposition, cross beam energy transfer, x-ray production and transport, nonlocal thermal equilibrium kinetics, thermal transport, hydrodynamic instabilities, thermonuclear burn, and transport of reaction products. Improvements in radiation hydrodynamic code capabilities and vast increases in computing power have enabled more realistic, accurate 3D simulations that treat all known asymmetry sources. We describe how numerical simulations helped to guide the program, assess the impediments to breakeven, and optimize every aspect of target design. A preshot simulation of the first National Ignition Facility experiment that surpassed breakeven predicted an increased yield that matches the experimental result, within the preshot predicted uncertainty, with a target gain of 1.5. We will cover the key developments in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ICF codes that enabled these simulations and give specific examples of how they helped to guide the program.

Marinak, M. M. (ORCID:0009000331127696)↗