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DOE OSTI · 1329986

Research Performance Progress Report: Diverging Supernova Explosion Experiments on NIF

Plewa, Tomasz
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Abstract

The aim of this project was to design a series of blast-wave driven Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The experiments of this kind are relevant to mixing in core-collapse supernovae (ccSNe) and have the potential to address previously unanswered questions in high-energy density physics (HEDP) and astrophysics. The unmatched laser power of the NIF laser offers a unique chance to observe and study “new physics” like the mass extensions observed in HEDP RT experiments performed on the Omega laser [1], which might be linked to self-generated magnetic fields [2] and so far could not be reproduced by numerical simulations. Moreover, NIF is currently the only facility that offers the possibility to execute a diverging RT experiment, which would allow to observe processes such as inter-shell penetration via turbulent mixing and shock-proximity effects (distortion of the shock by RT spikes).

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70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGYHEDP laboratory experimentsHydrodynamic instabilitiesHydrodynamicsLaboratory astrophysicsNational Ignition FacilityRayleigh-Taylor

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Plewa, Tomasz. 2016-10-25. Research Performance Progress Report: Diverging Supernova Explosion Experiments on NIF. https://doi.org/10.2172/1329986

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