Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

Center for Astrophysics Research and Technologies Seminar Series

High Energy Density Plasma: Experimental Astrophysics and Supernova Mixing

Presented by Kevin Meaney, UNM

Large scale laser systems have unlocked a regime previously hidden behind telescopes and trillions of miles. Facilities like the Omega laser system and the National Ignition Facility can now bring millimeter scale quantities of matter to extreme temperatures, pressures and velocities that have only been observed from afar in stars, supernovas and astrophysical jets. Supernovas have been especially difficult to model and high energy density experiments can shed new light on the evolution of their collapse. Supernova core collapse mixing, due to the hydrodynamic nonlinearity, is particularly difficult to predict with ex nilho simulations. The predominant form of mixing is due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth and and has been investigated through high energy density experiments at the National Ignition Facility, modeling in analogous conditions to SN1987. Diagnostics for how mix measurements on inertial confinement fusion capsules, such as the Gamma Cherenkov Detector (GCD), will be introduced. Other mixture measurements experiments like the hydro-kinetic experiments recently done and the future possibility of measuring 'cold' mixture in the future Dark Mix experiments will also be discussed.

2:00 pm, Thursday, April 20, 2017
PAIS-2540, PAIS

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A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php