Magnetized ICF: role of e-thermal conductivity on imploding shock and high-yield capsule designs

Simulations with a 40-50 T seed B-field is observed to make the requirements for ignition less stringent.¹ Imploding shocks propagating in uniform embedded B field have elliptical shapes.² This is because after the imploding shock decouples from the shell, the fast magnetosonic shock speed along the perpendicular direction is faster than that along the parallel direction. However, in the strong shock limit, which is the case for high-adiabat implosions with high gas fill, shock speed is almost independent of B field without e-thermal conduction. The presence of e-thermal conduction slows the shock speed along the parallel direction and induces the ellipticity in the imploding shock. We will demonstrate this by numerical simulations and physical arguments. The ice-layered HDC shot N210207 had reached record neutron yield close to 6e16, in agreement with simulations. Magnetizing this implosion can boost the simulated yield by 2x to above 1e17.