Fredrick Séguin

Biography

Education

Postdoc, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University and Smithsonian Institution (1974-1976).
Ph.D. Physics, California Institute of Technology (1974). Thesis: "The Structure and Stability of Relativistic, Differentially Rotating Stars."
S.B. Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1969). Thesis: "Lepton Symmetry Groups."

Expertise

Inertial confinement fusion; high-energy-density physics; plasma diagnostics; imaging science.

Award

American Physical Society’s 2017 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research

Research

Development of imaging and spectroscopic diagnostics and physics studies of inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) and high-energy-density (HED) plasmas are Fredrick’s focus. He designed compact proton spectrometers for studying asymmetries and compression in ICF implosions. He worked on proton-emission imaging of 3-D distributions of nuclear burn in ICF implosions and studied relationships of asymmetries in laser drive and capsule structure to implosion symmetry and performance. Fredrick collaborated with coworkers on developing monoenergetic-ion radiography techniques for study of self-generated electromagnetic fields, plasma instabilities, magnetic reconnection, astrophysical jet behavior, and important characteristics of ICF implosions and HED plasmas.

Fredrick previously developed specialized x-ray detection hardware for imaging of magnetically-confined plasmas, including radiation-hardened detectors for burning plasma tokamaks such as ITER, and made the first tomographic reconstructions of 2-D x-ray emission distributions in the MIT Alcator-A tokamak, studying the growth of coupled mode structures preceding major disruptions. He developed an eigenfunction formalism for modeling radial impurity transport in tokamaks, incorporating the effects of internal disruptions.

Fredrick also has extensive experience in digital imaging and computed tomography (CT), working with institutions such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Conservation-Analytical Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution. He was a principle designer of the first successful very small and very large industrial x-ray CT systems for inspection of small laboratory animals, human breast biopsy samples, industrial objects such as 3-D carbon-carbon composites, oil core samples, archaeological ceramics, and solid-propellant rocket motors. He was also an early proponent of using digital imaging and image processing for evaluating art-historical objects.

Publications

“Time evolution of filamentation and self-generated fields in the coronae of directly-driven ICF capsules”, F. H. Séguin, C. K. Li, M. J.-E. Manuel, H. G. Rinderknecht, N. Sinenian, J. A. Frenje, J. R. Rygg, D. G. Hicks, and R. D. Petrasso, Phys. Plasmas 19, 012701 (2012).

“Charged-Particle Probing of X-ray Driven Inertial-Fusion Implosions”, C. K. Li, F. H. Séguin, J. A. Frenje, M. Rosenberg, R. D. Petrasso, P. A. Amendt, J. A. Koch, O. L. Landen, H. S. Park,H. F. Robey, R. P. J. Town,A. Casner, F. Philippe, R. Betti, J. P. Knauer, D. D. Meyerhofer, C. A. Back, J. D. Kilkenny, A. Nikroo Science 327, 1231 (2010).

“Proton emission imaging for inertial-confinement-fusion experiments”, F. H. Séguin, J.L. DeCiantis, J.A. Frenje, S. Kurebayashi, C.K. Li, J.R. Rygg, C. Chen, V. Berube, B.E. Schwartz, R. D. Petrasso, F.J. Marshall, J. Knauer, V. Smalyuk, J.A. Delettrez, S. Roberts, D.D. Meyerhofer, T.C. Sangster, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75, 3520-3525 (2004).

“Spectrometry of charged particles from inertial-confinement-fusion plasmas”, F. H. Séguin, J. A. Frenje, C. K. Li, D. G. Hicks, S. Kurebayashi, J. R. Rygg, B.-E. Schwartz, R. D. Petrasso, S. Roberts, J. M. Soures, D. D. Meyerhofer, T. C. Sangster, J. P. Knauer, C. Sorce, V. Yu. Glebov, C. Stoeckl, T. W. Phillips, R. J. Leeper, K. Fletcher, S. Padalino, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 975-995 (2003).

"High-Resolution Computed Tomography and Digital Radiography of Archaeological and Art-Historical Objects", F. H. Séguin, in Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology II , edited by P.B. Vandiver, J. R. Druzik and G. Wheeler (Materials Reasearch Society, Pittsburgh, 1991), p. 65.

"Effects of Internal Disruptions on Impurity Transport in Tokamaks" , F. H. Séguin, R. Petrasso, and E.S. Marmar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 51(6), 455-458 (1983).

"The Stability of Non-uniform Rotation in Relativistic Stars", F. H. Séguin, Astrophysical Journal 197, 745-765 (1975).