Speaker
Description
The $^{2}H(d,p)^{3}H$ and $^{2}H(d,n)^{3}He$ fusion reactions at low energies are relevant in pure and applied physics. These reactions took place in the first minutes during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis and occur in the early phases of stellar burning. Active discussion [1] is being made to encourage scientists in research in the field.
The low-energy regime (tens to hundreds of keV) typical for nucleosynthesis and fusion plasmas is challenging to probe because of exponentially decreasing in the reactions cross section and therefore lowering counting rates. However due to sreening effects of electrons and polarizing reactants [2] fusion reaction rates can be increased significantly.
The dd fusion is the reliable source of thermonuclear energy and tritium fuel for future reactors without an external tritium source [3]. Handling of neutron production and the by-products emission direction can be achieved by polarizing deuterium in specific ways [2].
The world's first colliding-beam experiment with both polarized beams PolFusion [4] has been started in PNPI, Gatchina, in collaboration with Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany, and INFN University of Ferrara, Italy.
The experiment aims to study fusion reactions of $^{2}H(d,p)^{3}H$ and $^{2}H(d,n)^{3}He$ with the beam energy at 10-100 keV and various spin combinations. Fusion by-products are detected by using the $4 \pi$ central detector with 51\% filling based on 600 silicon pin-diodes to measure its energy.
We plan to measure different spin-correlation parameters such as assymetry, vector and tensor analyzing powers, spin-correlation coefficients, polarization transfer coefficients, and also differential and total cross sections of the reactions at given energy range.
The experimental setup is described. Results of the test-run in 2019 are presented. Details of future plans are discussed.
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C.P. Berlinguette, Y. Chiang, J.N. Munday et al. Revisiting the cold case of cold fusion. Nature 570, 45–51 (2019).
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H. Paetz gen. Schieck. The status of “Polarised Fusion” // Eur. Phys. J. A44, 321–354 (2010).
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S. Zheng, D.B. King, L. Garzotti, E. Surrey, T.N. Todd, Fusion reactor start-up
without an external tritium source, Fusion Eng. Des. 103 (2016) 13–20. -
The Status Of The Double Polarized Dd-fusion Experiment, PoS SPIN2018 (2018) 177.
