Issues on beam-plasma instability: early simulations focusing on the development of a compact neutron generator

• Autor(a) principal: Araujo,Wagner Leite
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Campos,Tarcisio Passos Ribeiro de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1806-11172010000300002
• topic: plasma simulation; pic code; compact neutron generators

The first issue on compact neutron generator design is the definition of the plasma generation process following the analysis of the physical plasma state. The plasma features and the nuclear reactions of fusion involved in the operation of the generator, deuterium-deuterium or deuterium-tritium, as well as the system which determines the trajectories of the particles and the target, are decisive to predict the neutron yield from the generator. Hence, the plasma behavior analysis under established conditions becomes an important evidence. This analysis may be done by means of plasma simulation models. Particle simulation of plasmas, employed since 1960s, provides a picture of the general plasma characteristics. Plasma physics is determined in most cases by simple equations, i.e. equations of motion of electrons, ions and neutrals atoms including the effect of collisions and self-consistent electric and magnetic fields. Computer simulation of plasmas comprises two general areas based on kinetic and fluid. While fluids simulation proceeds by solving numerically the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, assuming approximate transport coefficients, kinetic simulation considers more detailed models of plasma involving particle interactions through the electromagnetic fields. This article is focused on the simulation and analysis of injected beam into a steady state and periodic plasma. The applied calculation model, for this simulation purpose, is referring to an electrostatic one dimension code, based on kinetic simulation, which simulates periodic plasmas illustrating various fundamental considerations of plasma simulation and make it useful in simulations of the beam optic system for neutron generators. The main goal of this research is explore the PIC code reviewing the computational and physics theory necessary to build the structure of the elementary principles intending to introduce concepts of plasma physics and the computational theory. Moreover, foundations of plasma analysis for neutron generators will be stated