Effect of deviations from the Maxwell distribution on neutron production in laser targets

Because of the brief duration of laser implosions and the small size of the pellets, one may be concerned that the ions never reach a Maxwell distribution or that the tail is lost by diffusion. This might have a large effect on , which depends heavily on the tail. We have calculated the ion distribution and the DT . Results are presented for the ratio of for a monoenergetic isotropic distribution to that for a Maxwell distribution, for the rate of approach of to the equilibrium value, and for the decay of due to fast ion losses. The main effect in the last case is due to energy losses, not to non-Maxwellian distribution. The effect is substantially different than previously reported