Design of experiments characterizing heat conduction in magnetized, weakly collisional plasma

Abstract Heat conduction in weakly collisional, magnetized plasma is challenging to model accurately due to multifaceted physics governing heat-carrying electrons, including microinstabilities that scatter electrons and modify heat transport. Capturing these effects requires multidimensional kinetic theory simulations, which are computationally expensive. Experimental constraints overcome this issue, resulting in improved understanding of thermal transport in systems such as the intra-cluster medium of galaxy clusters, and the hot-spot in inertial confinement fusion. In this paper, we present a new experimental platform that produces a weakly collisional high- β $\beta$ beta plasma expected to be susceptible to the whistler heat-flux instability. This platform, to be fielded on the Orion laser, enables characterization of whistler-regulated thermal conductivity. The platform design is assessed using radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulations with the code FLASH. Simulations using three thermal conduction models predict conductivity suppression by over an order of magnitude relative to the Spitzer value at whistler saturation, demonstrating the efficacy of the platform.