Conveners
4.4 High Energy Density Matter
- Mark Hess (Sandia National Laboratories)
Astrophysical jets are ubiquitous structures observed in diverse environments, ranging in scale from young stellar objects to supermassive black holes. Most theories assume a gravitational engine to be responsible for generating the powerful axial flows of the jet from an accretion disk. However, the processes that maintain jet collimation and stability remain poorly understood. To understand...
Shock formation in dense, hot plasma flows where radiation loss is important continues to be an interesting topic for a variety of physics areas in HEDP and beyond. Characterization of the upstream and downstream plasma conditions can help determine the energy balance across the shock and access fundamental parameters including the plasma compressibility. Pulsed power-driven, large spatial...
In present day star forming regions, large, young stars introduce ionizing radiation sources to cold gas clouds. This radiation acts to heat the surrounding gas cloud, causing expansion and a rocket effect. The heat wave that propagates through the gas cloud, causing these changes, is driven by the ionizing radiation in the high-energy tail of the stellar emission, which we call a...
The Nernst effect plays the dominant role in the subsonic transport of magnetic flux in high-energy-density (HED) plasmas, where the plasma beta is high, and the temperature diffusivity is much greater than the magnetic diffusivity [1]. This is the parameter range characteristic of MagLIF and other magneto-inertial fusion approaches near stagnation. We demonstrate the transport of magnetic...
Underwater electrical wire explosions have attracted much attention in the recent decade due to the high energy density deposition into the wire, which is possible because of the high breakdown voltage of water compared to air and vacuum, preventing surface breakdown. Moreover, water’s small compressibility also contributes to higher energy density deposition, with the plasma maintaining a...
The properties, such as equation of state, electrical and thermal conductivity, of warm dense matter is an emerging area of study that applies to the astrophysics of gas giants; to the early stages of ICF capsule implosion; to the initial process of wire or foil cylinder explosions and to the formation of surface plasmas on conductors under fast rising high current densities.
“Warm-dense...
