Fully Kinetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations of a Deuterium Gas Puff<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>z</mml:mi></mml:math>Pinch

Abstract

We present the first fully kinetic, collisional, and electromagnetic simulations of the complete time evolution of a deuterium gas puff z pinch. Recent experiments with 15-MA current pinches have suggested that the dominant neutron-production mechanism is thermonuclear. We observe distinct differences between the kinetic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations in the pinch evolution with the kinetic simulations producing both thermonuclear and beam-target neutrons. The kinetic approach demonstrated in this Letter represents a viable alternative for performing future plasma physics calculations.