Transport of energy by charged particles in a laser plasma

An analysis is made of the transport of energy by charged particles in a high-temperature laser plasma, with particular attention to α particles produced by the deuterium-tritium reaction. The distribution function of the α particles is obtained by solving the transport equation for a spatially inhomogeneous plasma. An approximate method is developed for the calculation of the distribution function and other quantities of physical interest. A satisfactory agreement is obtained between the exact and approximate solutions.