Identifying deformation mechanisms in molecular dynamics simulations of laser shocked matter

JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS 350 (2017) 16-24

Authors:

TG White, A Tikku, MFA Silva, G Gregori, A Higginbotham, DE Eakins

Magneto-optic probe measurements in low density-supersonic jets

Journal of Instrumentation IOP Publishing 12:December (2017) P12001

Authors:

Matthew Oliver, T White, P Mabey, M Kuhn-Kauffeldt, L Dohl, R Bingham, R Clarke, P Graham, R Heathcote, M Koenig, Y Kuramitsu, DQ Lamb, J Meinecke, T Michel, F Miniati, M Notley, B Reville, S Sarkar, Y Sakawa, A Schekochihin, P Tzeferacos, N Woolsey, Gianluca Gregori

Abstract:

A magneto-optic probe was used to make time-resolved measurements of the magnetic field in both a single supersonic jet and in a collision between two supersonic turbulent jets, with an electron density ⇡ 1018 cm3 and electron temperature ⇡ 4 eV. The magneto-optic data indicated the magnetic field reaches B ⇡ 200 G. The measured values are compared against those obtained with a magnetic induction probe. Good agreement of the time-dependent magnetic field measured using the two techniques is found.

AWAKE readiness for the study of the seeded self-modulation of a 400GeV proton bunch

PLASMA PHYSICS AND CONTROLLED FUSION 60:1 (2017) ARTN 014046

Authors:

P Muggli, E Adli, R Apsimon, F Asmus, R Baartman, A-M Bachmann, MB Marin, F Batsch, J Bauche, VKB Olsen, M Bernardini, B Biskup, EB Vinuela, A Boccardi, T Bogey, T Bohl, C Bracco, F Braunmuller, S Burger, G Burt, S Bustamante, B Buttenschoen, A Butterworth, A Caldwell, M Cascella, E Chevallay, M Chung, H Damerau, L Deacon, A Dexter, P Dirksen, S Doebert, J Farmer, V Fedosseev, T Feniet, G Fior, R Fiorito, R Fonseca, F Friebel, P Gander, S Gessner, I Gorgisyan, AA Gorn, O Grulke, E Gschwendtner, A Guerrero, J Hansen, C Hessler, W Hofle, J Holloway, M Huther, M Ibison, MR Islam, L Jensen, S Jolly, M Kasim, F Keeble, S-Y Kim, F Kraus, A Lasheen, T Lefevre, G LeGodec, Y Li, S Liu, N Lopes, KV Lotov, M Martyanov, S Mazzoni, DM Godoy, O Mete, VA Minakov, R Mompo, J Moody, MT Moreira, J Mitchell, C Mutin, P Norreys, E Oz, E Ozturk, W Pauw, A Pardons, C Pasquino, K Pepitone, A Petrenko, S Pitmann, G Plyushchev, A Pukhov, K Rieger, H Ruhl, J Schmidt, IA Shalimova, E Shaposhnikova, P Sherwood, L Silva, AP Sosedkin, R Speroni, RI Spitsyn, K Szczurek, J Thomas, PV Tuev, M Turner, V Verzilov, J Vieira, H Vincke, CP Welsch, B Williamson, M Wing, G Xia, H Zhang, AWAKE Collaboration

X-ray line coincidence photopumping in a solar flare

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 474:3 (2017) 3782-3786

Authors:

FP Keenan, K Poppenhaeger, M Mathioudakis, Steven Rose, J Flowerdew, D Hynes, DJ Christian, J Nilsen, WR Johnson

Abstract:

Line coincidence photopumping is a process where the electrons of an atomic or molecular species are radiatively excited through the absorption of line emission from another species at a coincident wavelength. There are many instances of line coincidence photopumping in astrophysical sources at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths, with the most famous example being Bowen fluorescence (pumping of O III 303.80 Å by He II), but none to our knowledge in X-rays. However, here we report on a scheme where a He-like line of Ne IX at 11.000 Å is photopumped by He-like Na X at 11.003 Å, which predicts significant intensity enhancement in the Ne IX 82.76 Å transition under physical conditions found in solar flare plasmas. A comparison of our theoretical models with published X-ray observations of a solar flare obtained during a rocket flight provides evidence for line enhancement, with the measured degree of enhancement being consistent with that expected from theory, a truly surprising result. Observations of this enhancement during flares on stars other than the Sun would provide a powerful new diagnostic tool for determining the sizes of flare loops in these distant, spatially unresolved, astronomical sources.

Simultaneous diagnosis of radial profiles and mix in NIF ignition-scale implosions via X-ray spectroscopy

Physics of Plasmas AIP Publishing 24:11 (2017) 112703

Authors:

Orlando Ciricosta, H Scott, P Durey, BA Hammel, R Epstein, Thomas Preston, SP Regan, Sam Vinko, NC Woolsey, Justin Wark

Abstract:

In a NIF implosion hydrodynamic instabilities may cause cold material from the imploding shell to be injected into the hot-spot (hot-spot mix), enhancing the radiative and conductive losses, which in turn may lead to a quenching of the ignition process. The bound-bound features of the spectrum emitted by high-Z ablator dopants that get mixed into the hot-spot have been previously used to infer the total amount of mixed mass; however, the typical errorbars are larger than the maximum tolerable mix. We present here an improved 2D model for mix spectroscopy which can be used to retrieve information on both the amount of mixed mass and on the full imploded plasma profile. By performing radiation transfer, and simultaneously fitting all of the features exhibited by the spectra, we are able to constrain self-consistently the effect of the opacity of the external layers of the target on the emission, thus improving the accuracy of the inferred mixed mass. The model's predictive capabilities are first validated by fitting simulated spectra arising from fully characterized hydrodynamic simulations, then the model is applied to previously published experimental results, providing values of mix mass in agreement with previous estimates. We show that the new self consistent procedure leads to better constrained estimates of mix, and also provides insight on the sensitivity of the hot-spot spectroscopy to the spatial properties of the imploded capsule, such as the in- ight aspect ratio of the cold fuel surrounding the hotspot.