  The fusion of deuterium (D) with tritium (T) is the most promising of the
reactions that could power the thermonuclear reactors of the future. Already
favored for its low activation energy and high yield, it may lead to even more
efficient energy generation if obtained in a polarized state, i.e. with the
spin of the reactants aligned. While the DT fusion rate has been measured
extensively, very little is known of the effects of polarization. Meanwhile,
arriving at a fundamental understanding of the fusion process in terms of the
laws of quantum mechanics and the underlying theory of the strong force has
been a daunting challenge. We use nuclear forces derived from chiral effective
field theory and apply the ab initio reaction method known as no-core shell
model with continuum to predict, for the first time from first principles, the
enhancement factor of the polarized DT fusion rate and anisotropy of the
emitted neutron and {\alpha} particle.
