  The prospects for achieving net energy production with pB11 fuel have
recently considerably brightened. Studies have shown that the multi-GG field
potentially obtainable with modest dense plasma focus devices have the effect
of reducing the flow of energy from the ions to the electrons and thus
suppressing bremsstrahlung radiation that cools the plasma. We report here on
new simulations that indicate that net energy production may be achievable in
high-magnetic-field devices at peak currents as low as 2.3 MA. While these
simulations only model the dense plasmoid formed in the focus, new simulation
techniques can allow a full particle-in-cell simulation of DPF functioning over
the wide range of time and space scales needed. Such simulations will be of
great value in the next round of experiments that will use pB11 fuel.
