Comparison of two α-particle transport methods in inertial confinement fusion

The authors investigated two methods to be used as charged (α-) particle transport modules in the Lagrangian hdyro code MEDUSA-KA. One module, CIRCE, solves the time dependent Fokker-Planck equation; the other, TDPT, solves a range-energy-time relationship for the particles, assuming that they move along straight lines through the plasma. All calculations have been done for the heavy ion driven 4 mg HIBALL target. For the purpose investigated, both codes are equivalent in available options. Inclusion of the transport modules increases the computing time by a factor of 2 to 3 for the complete calculation. Thus an accurate treatment of transport seems to be affordable without too big a penalty. The adiabatic approximation to transport improves the results of local deposition only slightly