Efficient Optimization of Plasma Radiation Detector Configurations using Imperfect Inference Models

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Song, Difan; Lewis, William E.; Knapp, Patrick F.; Wu, C. F. Jeff; Joseph, V. Roshan
• 署名单位: University System of Georgia; Georgia Institute of Technology; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Sandia National Laboratories
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0162-1459; 1537-274X
• DOI: 10.1080/01621459.2025.2582601
• 发表日期: 2026-01-02
• 页码: 163-171
• 关键词: bayesian optimization; Gaussian process; Instrument optimization; inverse problem; optimal experimental design; OPTIMAL EXPERIMENTAL-DESIGN; Inverse problems

摘要

The configurations of instruments fielded on an experiment affect the amount of information captured and the quality of subsequent inference. We investigate the problem of optimizing plasma x-ray radiation detectors in a magneto-inertial fusion experiment at Sandia National Laboratories. It is impossible to directly measure properties such as the temperature of the thermonuclear fusion plasma produced in these experiments because of the extreme environment and destructive nature of the experiment. Among other diagnostics, several detectors are placed with significant standoff from the fusion target to capture the x-rays emitted by the fusion plasma, which can be used to infer some of its properties. To optimize the configuration of these detectors, a high-fidelity model (HFM) is used for simulating outputs and a low-fidelity model (LFM) is used for inference. We develop methods based on A- and L-optimality criteria that are efficient to compute while explicitly accounting for the discrepancy between the HFM and the LFM. The method allows us to find detector configurations that perform similarly to or better than the configuration obtained using an existing sampling-based optimization method while decreasing computational time by a factor of 50. Supplementary materials for this article are available online, including a standardized description of the materials available for reproducing the work.