Skip to main content
Log in

Plasma physics

Burning plasma surprise

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Physics

View current issue Submit your manuscript

In a burning plasma, fusion-born α particles are the dominant source of heating. In such conditions, the deuterium and tritium ion energy distribution deviates from the expected thermal Maxwellian distribution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: Isotropic ion velocity and ion temperature.

References

  1. Zylstra, A. B. et al. Nature 601, 542–548 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Abu-Shawareb, H. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 075001 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hartouni, E. P. et al. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01809-3 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Brysk, H. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 15, 611–617 (1973).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Munro, D. H. Nucl. Fusion 56, 036001 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Inglebert, A., Canaud, B. & Larroche, O. EPL 107, 65003 (2014).

  7. Sadler, J. D. et al. Phys. Rev. E 100, 033206 (2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefano Atzeni.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

S.A. reports occasional consulting work on inertial fusion for Focused Energy GmbH.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Atzeni, S. Burning plasma surprise. Nat. Phys. 19, 10–11 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01820-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01820-8

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation