ALPHA-PARTICLE STOPPING IN A DENSE BURNING PLASMA

The process of the slowing down of 3.5 MeV fusion alpha particles in d ense thermonuclear plasmas, characterizing the inertial confinement fu sion (ICF) scheme, is investigated on the basis of a full dielectric t heory that describes both the electron response and the ion response. It is shown that, with increasing plasma density, the collective behav iour of the plasma becomes more and more important in determining the alpha particle energy losses. The electrostatic potential and the stop ping power of alpha particles are computed for different particle velo cities and temperature ratios, T-e/T-i. In addition, the fuel-areal de nsity, p rho R, is calculated and compared with the results of recent theories. It is demonstrated that individual particle models overestim ate rho R values of ICF alphas by almost 20%.