Dynamic Methods in the Physics of Nonideal Plasma

Extreme states of matter on Earth and in space

“…The above-given estimate G $ 1X5À5X0 of the nonideality parameter may increase by an order of magnitude when higher-order terms in the interaction potentials are taken into account [181]. This in turn may give rise to a`plasma' phase transition similar to that observed in a strongly nonideal nonrelativistic plasma [2,4,54].…”

“…In this case, presenting special difficulties in the physical description of such a medium is the nonideal plasma domain, where the Coulomb interparticle interaction energy e 2 n 1a3 is comparable to or higher than the kinetic energy E k of particle motion. In this domain, the plasma nonideality parameter G e 2 n 1a3 aE k b 1, and therefore plasma nonideality effects cannot be described by the perturbation theory [1,3,4], while the application of numerical parameter-free Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics methods [20,41] is fraught with the difficulties of selection of adequate pseudopotentials and correct evaluation of quantum effects.…”

“…Even now plasma states with peak pressures of hundreds±thousands of megabars, temperatures of up to 10 9 K, and energy densities of 10 9 J cm À3 , the latter being comparable to the energy density of the nuclear substance, have come to be subjects of laboratory investigations [3,4,22,29,64,65]. According to the notions elaborated to date [23 ± 25, 28], to implement a controlled thermonuclear reaction with inertial plasma confinement requires delivering an energy of several megajoules to a spherical target in 10 À9 s to produce at its center a deuterium±tritium plasma with extremely high parameters: T % 1À2 Â 10 8 K, r % 200 g cm À3 , p % 150 ± 200 Gbar, which are close to the conditions at the solar center.…”

“…The corresponding output laser power should exceed the total power of all terrestrial electric power plants by several orders of magnitude. Constructed for this purpose are the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the USA [3,4,66] and LMJ (from French Ð Laser M egajoule) in France [67 ± 69], as well as soft X-ray radiation facilities involving a high-current Z-pinch (Zeta, USA) [70 ± 72] and heavy-ion relativistic beams [73,74].…”

“…It is significant that the experimental capabilities of impulse technologies broaden rapidly and encroach on the province of the megabar±gigabar range. Supplemented by the data obtained in experiments with diamond anvils, explosion and electroexplosion devices, and light-gas guns, these record parameters are now the source of new and quite often unexpected information about the behavior of plasmas with extreme parameter values [3,4].…”