Theory of Compton scattering in ignited thermonuclear plasmas

Inertially confined, ignited thermonuclear deuterium-tritium plasmas will produce intense blackbody radiation at temperatures of T greater than or similar to 20 keV; it is shown that the injection of GeV electrons into the burning core can efficiently generate high-energy Compton scattering photons, as the high blackbody photon density alleviates the small interaction cross section. Moreover, it is shown that the spectrum scattered in a small solid angle can be remarkably monochromatic, due to kinematic pileup; peak brightness in excess of 10(30) photons/(mm(2) mrad(2) s 0.1% bandwidth) are predicted. These results are also discussed within the context of the Schwinger field and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.