ESTIMATION OF NUCLEAR FUSION REQUIREMENTS IN BUBBLES DURING ULTRA-HIGH-PRESSURE, ULTRA-HIGH-TEMPERATURE CAVITATION PROMOTED BY MAGNETIC FIELD

In the present work, a strong magnetic field was applied near the outlet of the water jet nozzle to promote the generation of multifunction cavitation bubbles. Because these bubbles contained charged species, the bubbles experienced a Lorentz force due to the magnetic field and collided with greater force. As such, the internal bubble pressure exceeded the threshold value required for fusion to occur. The expansion of these charged bubbles in response to ultrasonic irradiation affected adjacent charged bubbles so that the energy density of the atoms in the bubbles was greater than the fusion threshold. The results of this work strongly suggest that the formation of bubbles via the UTPC process in conjunction with a strong magnetic field may result in bubble fusion.

Searching strong ‘spin’-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas in strong magnetic fields

We show that a strong `spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional (1D) hole gas is achievable via applying a strong magnetic field to the original two-fold degenerate (spin degeneracy) hole gas confined in a cylindrical Ge nanowire. Both strong longitudinal and strong transverse magnetic fields are feasible to achieve this goal. Based on quasi-degenerate perturbation calculations, we show the induced low-energy subband dispersion of the hole gas can be written as $E=\hbar^{2}k^{2}_{z}/(2m^{*}_{h})+\alpha\sigma^{z}k_{z}+g^{*}_{h}\mu_{B}B\sigma^{x}/2$, a form exactly the same as that of the electron gas in the conduction band. Here the Pauli matrices $\sigma^{z,x}$ represent a pseudo spin (or `spin' ), because the real spin degree of freedom has been split off from the subband dispersions by the strong magnetic field. Also, for a moderate nanowire radius $R=10$ nm, the induced effective hole mass $m^{*}_{h}$ ($0.065\sim0.08~m_{e}$) and the `spin'-orbit coupling $\alpha$ ($0.35\sim0.8$ eV~\AA) have a small magnetic field dependence in the studied magnetic field interval $1<B<15$ T, while the effective $g$-factor $g^{*}_{h}$ of the hole `spin' only has a small magnetic field dependence in the large field region.

Runaway electron flows in magnetized coaxial gas diodes

This paper presents the experimental results on applying a strong magnetic field (B) to increase the uniformity and density of a picosecond runaway electron flow (RAEF) formed in an air coaxial diode with a tubular cathode. A uniform longitudinal field Bz allows to confine RAEF similarly to the electron beam in a magnetically insulated coaxial vacuum diode. Dependence of the spatial discreteness of RAEF emission and the transverse size of the emitting plasma regions on Bz has been demonstrated. For the cathode diameter of 8 mm, a current density was significantly increased from 40 A/cm2 (at Bz = const) to 100 A/cm2 by applying B-field with converging field lines. In the region of B maximum (5 T) the RAEF diameter was squeezed by ≈ 4 times.

MHD R&D Activities for Liquid Metal Blankets

According to the most recently revised European design strategy for DEMO breeding blankets, mature concepts have been identified that require a reduced technological extrapolation towards DEMO and will be tested in ITER. In order to optimize and finalize the design of test blanket modules, a number of issues have to be better understood that are related to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) interactions of the liquid breeder with the strong magnetic field that confines the fusion plasma. The aim of the present paper is to describe the state of the art of the study of MHD effects coupled with other physical phenomena, such as tritium transport, corrosion and heat transfer. Both numerical and experimental approaches are discussed, as well as future requirements to achieve a reliable prediction of these processes in liquid metal blankets.