Chongjie Mo

In the double-cone ignition (DCI) scheme, the unique configuration of the gold cones facilitates plasma compression. However, the gold impurity in the plasma jet have a potential impact on the energy conversion efficiency and final fusion yield. In this study, we reanalyzed the x-ray Thomson scattering spectrum from DCI-R7 experiments by combining the imaginary-time correlation function method with first-principles calculations. Our findings revise the previously diagnosed temperature of 50 ± 10 eV to 25.4 ± 1.0 eV , with a density of 8 ± 2 g cm − 3 and only 0.162 ± 0.015 % of gold impurity. These results provide clear evidence of the role played by the gold cones during the compression process, and demonstrate that the gold impurity fraction is well within acceptable limits.

The non-equilibrium characteristics during the shock relaxation process hold a foundational position in various fields. In contrast to the propagation of a single shock wave, the collision process of two shock waves exhibits distinct non-equilibrium features. Employing non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, we simulated the collision of ultra-strong shock waves in a classical gas system, investigating the relationship between equilibrium relaxation time and shock intensity. Tracking the spatial migration of microscopic particles in the shock collision region during the relaxation process, we observed a significant contribution of particle migration to the average energy changes during relaxation. The discussion on particle migration provides a valuable new perspective for understanding the microscopic mechanisms of the relaxation process.

The theoretical design for the time profile of radiation temperature plays an important role in indirect laser-driven equation-of-state measurement, which severely relies on a large number of radiation hydrodynamic simulations. In this work, we provide a concise data-driven method for optimizing the radiation temperature profile, which combines a time-varying Volterra model with an improvement achieved by data generation via radiation hydrodynamic simulations utilizing random perturbations in a skew normal distribution as inputs. We find that the time-varying Volterra model can be used to investigate the time-dependent relationship between the radiation temperature and the key physical quantities of interest, such as shock-wave velocity and ablation drive pressure. With this method, we realize the inverse designs of the radiation temperature profiles for planar dynamic shock and ramp compressions according to the desired shock-wave velocity and drive pressure, respectively, which shows the advantage of practical application in experiments.

We propose an ansatz without adjustable parameters for the calculation of dynamical structure factor. The ansatz combines quasi-particle Green's function, especially the contribution from the renormalization factor, and the exchange-correlation kernel from time-dependent density functional theory together, verified for typical metals and semiconductors from plasmon excitation regime to Compton scattering regime. It has the capability to reconcile both small-angle and large-angle x-ray scattering (IXS) signals with much improved accuracy, which can be used, as the theoretical base model, in inversely inferring electronic structures of condensed matter from IXS experimental signals directly. It may also used to diagnose thermal parameters, such as temperature and density, of dense plasmas in x-ray Thomson scattering experiments.

The Migdal effect inside detectors provides a new possibility of probing the sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles. While there has been well-established methods treating the Migdal effect in isolated atoms, a coherent and complete description of the valence electrons in semiconductor is still absent. The bremstrahlung-like approach is a promising attempt, but it turns invalid for DM masses below a few tens of MeV. In this paper, we lay out a framework where phonon is chosen as an effective degree of freedom to describe the Migdal effect in semiconductors. In this picture, a valence electron is excited to the conduction state via exchange of a virtual phonon, accompanied by a multi-phonon process triggered by an incident DM particle. Under the incoherent approximation, it turns out that this approach can effectively push the sensitivities of the semiconductor targets further down to the MeV DM mass region.

The Migdal effect inside detectors provides a new possibility of probing the sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles. While there has been well-established methods treating the Migdal effect in isolated atoms, a coherent and complete description of the valence electrons in a semiconductor is still absent. The bremstrahlunglike approach is a promising attempt, but it turns invalid for DM masses below a few tens of MeV. In this paper, we lay out a framework where phonon is chosen as an effective degree of freedom to describe the Migdal effect in semiconductors. In this picture, a valence electron is excited to the conduction state via exchange of a virtual phonon, accompanied by a multiphonon process triggered by an incident DM particle. Under the incoherent approximation, it turns out that this approach can effectively push the sensitivities of the semiconductor targets further down to the MeV DM mass region.

It is experimentally reported that the stratified layer atop Earth’s outer core is hundreds of kilometers thick with a maximum sound velocity reduction of 0.3% relative to the preliminary reference Earth model. However, why the sound velocity atop the outer core is reduced remains theoretically unclear. In this paper, the Ni and vital light O in the outer core were both considered to have implications for the stratification of Earth’s core, including the stratification thickness and the sound velocity profile. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were performed on the Fe-Ni-O fluid under the conditions of Earth’s outer core, and the self-diffusion coefficients and ion-ion dynamic structure factors were calculated. The self-diffusion coefficient of O is (19.56±0.83)×10-9 m2s-1 at the core-mantle boundary. Combining the diffusion equation with the time evolution of the O self-diffusion coefficient, the calculated stratification thickness at present is 194.7 km. The calculated ion-ion dynamic structural factors indicate that the sound velocity in the outmost outer core near the stratified layer is 7.86 km/s. These results show that Fe-Ni-O is a possible composition of the stratified layer atop the outer core featuring an appropriate thickness and a reduced sound velocity, thereby shedding light on the dynamic behavior of Earth’s core.