Physics-informed multiprobe instrument for IFE experiments (PiMIX)

The record-setting MJ neutron yield in the recent NIF experiment opened up a new chapter in burning plasma science and technology. Here we discuss new possibilities that leverage this unprecedented regime of high-energy density laboratory plasmas to advance physics-informed multiprobe instrument (PiMIX), data handling and data interpretation capabilities for IFE experiments. In addition to reconstruction of 3D ICF target implosion movies, our goal is to achieve high-resolution density measurement in the range of one to ten microns, ideally with sub-ns temporal resolution to produce the movies of implosion dynamics. PiMIX will combine multiple-energy photon (X-rays and gamma rays, for example) imaging with neutron and proton measurements to achieve higher information yield than individual diagnostics alone. Initial proof-of-principle measurements will leverage existing LANL and collaborating facilities, new detector capabilities through fast scintillators, perovskites, high-speed imaging sensors, and metamaterial structures. Existing and new data will become available for machine-learning algorithm development and validation. Machine learning and especially physics-informed data-driven algorithms will aim at a unified data pipeline for heterogeneous data processing, constrained by physics models, statistics and the compressed sensing framework.