Enhancement of fusion reactivities using non-Maxwellian energy distributions

Abstract

We discuss conditions for the enhancement of fusion reactivities arising from different choices of energy distribution functions for the reactants. The key element for potential gains in fusion reactivity is identified in the functional dependence of the tunnellng coefficient upon the energy, ensuring the existence of a finite range of temperatures for which reactivity of fusion processes is boosted with respect to the Maxwellian case. This is shown, using a convenient parameterization of the tunneling coefficient dependence upon the energy, analytically in the simplified case of a bimodal Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, and numerically for kappa-distributions. We then consider tunneling potentials progressively better approximating fusion processes, and evaluate in each case the average reactivity in the case of kappa-distributions.

arXiv comment12 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Generation of non-Maxwell-Boltzmann energy distributions during thermalization of interacting baths
• Dynamics of thermalization in classical three-dimensional many-body systems: Non-Maxwellian distributions and the role of anisotropic trapping
• Maximization of nuclear fusion reactivity via optimal energy distributions