A PRACTICAL NONLOCAL MODEL FOR ELECTRON HEAT-TRANSPORT IN LASER PLASMAS

A brief review of nonlocal heat-flow models is presented. Numerical difficulties associated with their implementation, as recently demonstrated by Prasad and Kershaw [Phys. Fluids B 1, 2430 (1989)], are discussed and a simple solution is proposed. A new nonlocal heat-flow formula is developed, based on numerical simulations of the decay of linearized thermal waves, using the electron Fokker-Plack code SPARK. The formula is tested by modeling the full implosion of a CH shell driven by 351 nm laser irradiation. Results are shown to be in good agreement with SPARK simulations.