Numerical study of core formation of asymmetrically driven cone-guided targets

Compression of a directly driven fast ignition cone-sphere target with a finite number of laser beams is numerically studied using a three-dimensional hydrodynamics code IMPACT-3D. The formation of a dense plasma core is simulated for 12-, 9-, 6-, and 4-beam configurations of the GEKKO XII laser. The complex 3D shapes of the cores are analyzed by elucidating synthetic 2D x-ray radiographic images in two orthogonal directions. The simulated x-ray images show significant differences in the core shape between the two viewing directions and rotation of the stagnating core axis in the top view for the axisymmetric 9- and 6-beam configurations.