Synergistic progress in plasmas: from fusion to astrophysics

Over the last decade, several exciting directions have been initiated by laser-driven plasmas, e.g. compact particle accelerators, inertial fusion and laboratory astrophysics. The first has known rapid progress, in terms of current, energy, stability; fusion has gone through a historic step, with the news of ignition being achieved at NIF in 2022; and laboratory astrophysics has known also spectacular developments, demonstrating the possibility to perform fully scalable experiments relevant to various objects such as forming stars and supernovae. A particularly interesting aspect is that all these fields are strongly synergistic, i.e. that advances in one can push the others as well. I will present examples of such synergies, through recent results we have obtained in all these domains, and in particular how ultra-bright neutron beams can be developed using latest generation multi-PW lasers [1,2]. These could open up interesting perspectives in terms of cargo inspection, but also for fusion plasma measurements. I will also show how fusion can benefit from external magnetization [3]. Finally I will discuss advances in laboratory astrophysics, particularly the first-stage acceleration of ions leading to cosmic rays [4,5], understanding the universal nature of collimated outflows in the Universe [6], and probing the intricacy of 3D magnetic reconnection [7]. 

[1] High-flux neutron generation by laser-accelerated ions from single-and double-layer targets 
V Horný, SN Chen, X Davoine, V Lelasseux, L Gremillet, J Fuchs 
Scientific Reports 12 (1), 19767, 2022 
[2] Numerical investigation of spallation neutrons generated from petawatt-scale laser-driven proton beams 
B Martinez, SN Chen, S Bolaños, N Blanchot, G Boutoux, W Cayzac, ... 
Matter and Radiation at Extremes 7 (2), 024401, 2022 
[3] Dynamics of nanosecond laser pulse propagation and of associated instabilities in a magnetized underdense plasma 
W. Yao, A. Higginson, J. -R. Marquès, P. Antici, J. Béard, K. Burdonov, M. Borghesi, A. Castan, A. Ciardi, B. Coleman, S. N. Chen, E. d'Humières, T. Gangolf, L. Gremillet, B. Khiar, L. Lancia, P. Loiseau, X. Ribeyre, A. Soloviev, M. Starodubtsev, Q. Wang, J. Fuchs, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.06036 
[4] Laboratory evidence for proton energization by collisionless shock surfing 
W Yao, A Fazzini, SN Chen, K Burdonov, P Antici, J Béard, S Bolaños, ... 
Nature Physics 17 (10), 1177-1182, 2021 
[5] Enhancement of the Nonresonant Streaming Instability by Particle Collisions 
A Marret, A Ciardi, R Smets, J Fuchs, L Nicolas 
Physical Review Letters 128 (11), 115101, 2022 
[6] Laboratory disruption of scaled astrophysical outflows by a misaligned magnetic field 

G Revet, B Khiar, E Filippov, C Argiroffi, J Béard, R Bonito, M Cerchez, ... 
Nature communications 12 (1), 762, 2021 
[7] Laboratory evidence of magnetic reconnection hampered in obliquely interacting flux tubes 
S Bolaños, A Sladkov, R Smets, SN Chen, A Grisollet, E Filippov, ... 
Nature Communications 13 (1), 6426, 2022