Radiation Transport in Strongly Coupled High-Energy-Density Plasmas

Lefevre, Heath Joseph, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Heath LeFevre is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. LeFevre will study High-Energy Density (HED) plasmas at the Omega and Omega EP laser facilities at the University of Rochester. The project aims to understand and measure coupling between intense electromagnetic radiation and an HED plasma, a plasma with particularly high particle density and temperature. The regime where effects of strong coupling on emission and absorption of radiation in HED plasmas is not well studied and is important to the physics of white dwarf stars and type Ia supernova, as well as for inertial confinement fusion plasmas. Along with the research, LeFevre will conduct outreach, recruiting, and mentoring efforts aimed at increasing the diversity of students studying plasma physics. This study explores strongly coupled, radiation flux dominated plasmas, which are relevant to inertial confinement fusion, white dwarf stars, and type Ia supernova. This is a physics regime that is difficult to model and therefore the experimental results to be obtained at the University of Rochester’s high energy laser facilities are of fundamental interest to astrophysics and HED science research. Comparing results of these experiments with available radiation hydrodynamics, atomic kinetics, and radiation transport codes will quantify the effects of radiation coupling in these plasmas. This study will be able to eliminate common sources of uncertainty and error in HED physics models due to its use of multiple facilities and experimental conditions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.