Experimental astrophysics with high power lasers andZpinches

Abstract

With the advent of high-energy-density ͑HED͒ experimental facilities, such as high-energy lasers and fast Z-pinch, pulsed-power facilities, millimeter-scale quantities of matter can be placed in extreme states of density, temperature, and/or velocity. This has enabled the emergence of a new class of experimental science, HED laboratory astrophysics, wherein the properties of matter and the processes that occur under extreme astrophysical conditions can be examined in the laboratory. Areas particularly suitable to this class of experimental astrophysics include the study of opacities relevant to stellar interiors, equations of state relevant to planetary interiors, strong shock-driven nonlinear hydrodynamics and radiative dynamics relevant to supernova explosions and subsequent evolution, protostellar jets and high Mach number flows, radiatively driven molecular clouds and nonlinear photoevaporation front dynamics, and photoionized plasmas relevant to accretion disks around compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars.

Unstable blast shocks in dilute granular flows

“…If such explosions become unstable, the front will spread matter in clumps. These considerations are important for the distribution of matter in the universe and the ensuing formation of clusters giving birth to stars or other interstellar objects [17][18][19].…”

“…The instability of such fronts has been studied since the 1960s with ongoing work as of the present date [12][13][14]. Several issues have to be examined such as the nature of the surrounding gas, the presence or not of different dissipation mechanisms as may happen in the presence of radiative processes, for example, and the exact details of the shell as well as the geometry of the blast [15][16][17][18]. The question of the stability of such blasts has haunted specialists in diverse fields for more than half a century.…”

Stars in the age of micro-arc-second astrometry

“…In parallel, the physics of stellar plasma is studied in the laboratory with (i) fluid experiments (study of turbulence in rotating, magnetic fluids, see e.g. Richard & Zahn 1999), (ii) particle accelerators (nuclear reaction cross sections) and, (iii) the so-called high energy-density facilities (based on high power lasers or z-pinches) which aim at exploring the high temperature and high density regimes found in stars, brown dwarfs and giant planets to get information on the equation of state (EOS), opacities or thermonuclear reactions (see Remington et al 2006).…”

“…In parallel, the physics of stellar plasma is studied in the laboratory with (i) fluid experiments (study of turbulence in rotating, magnetic fluids, see e.g. Richard & Zahn 1999), (ii) particle accelerators (nuclear reaction cross sections) and, (iii) the so-called high energy-density facilities (based on high power lasers or z-pinches) which aim at exploring the high temperature and high density regimes found in stars, brown dwarfs and giant planets to get information on the equation of state (EOS), opacities or thermonuclear reactions (see Remington et al 2006).Modern ground-based and spatial telescopes equipped with high quality instrumentation are in use or under development (VLT-VLTI, JWST, etc.). They provide very accurate data which, after treatment, give access to stellar global parameters: luminosity, radius, mass, effective temperature T eff , gravity log g, abundances.…”

Collisionless interaction of an energetic laser produced plasma with a large magnetoplasma

“…High-power laser produced plasmas can model certain aspects of astrophysical phenomena in a controlled laboratory setting, by doing well-scaled physics despite ordersof-magnitude discrepancies in spatial and temporal scales (Ryutov et al 2001;Remington et al 2006). In combination with an ambient magnetized plasma, novel laser experiments can be devised (Drake 2000) that are relevant to collisionless processes, such as shocks (Sagdeev 1966), magnetic turbulence, magnetic reconnection, or wave-particle interactions.…”