Results from Marble Experiments on the National Ignition Facility: One- and Two-Shock Implosions for Studying the Effect of Heterogeneous Mix on Thermonuclear Burn*

The Marble campaign on NIF [T J Murphy et al, J Phys:Conf Series 717, 012072 (2016)] investigates the effect of heterogeneous mix on thermonuclear burn for comparison to a probability distribution function (PDF) burn model. [J R Fincke, unpublished; J R Ristorcelli, Phys Fluids 29, 020705 (2017)] MARBLE utilizes plastic capsules filled with deuterated plastic foam and tritium gas. A campaign has been completed using the indirect drive exploding pusher platform [S. LePape et al, Phys Rev Lett 112, 225002 (2014)] in which the Marble capsules were driven with a single strong shock. The ratio of DT to DD neutron yield is consistent with uniform atomic mix regardless of the initial morphology of the foam. A new campaign, using the 2-shock platform, has been successful at achieving cooler, denser implosions with similar yields. The status of these experiments will be presented.