The final Plasma seminar of this term will be given by former Plasma Group colleague Chris Walsh (LLNL), who is visiting us in person, and talking us about “Self-generated Magnetic Fields in Laser-Plasmas Relevant to Inertial Confinement Fusion Experiments”. The seminar is not at the normal time – Monday at 11 AM. The seminar will be streamed on Teams.
Title: Self-generated Magnetic Fields in Laser-Plasmas Relevant to Inertial Confinement Fusion Experiments
Abstract: Magnetic fields are spontaneously generated within plasmas due to the Biermann Battery effect but are not routinely incorporated into the design or analysis of inertial confinement fusion experiments. This talk will present efforts to constrain the rate of magnetic field growth in laser-plasmas, allowing for improved estimates for the impact of self-generated fields on both directly and indirectly driven implosions. Current-day mysteries, such as the spontaneous growth of filamentary fields in simple laser-foil experiments, will be discussed. Estimates of the magnetic field strength within the recent high-yield experiment on The National Ignition Facility will also be presented.