Simulations of the neon gas cell experiment have utilized the VisRad view factor code, the Helios 1-D hydrodynamics code, and the Spect3D spectral synthesizer. While a small sample of images produced from these programs is shown here, the pages linked to above provides display a wide range of figures depicting these results. The snapshot below shows the experimental setup after 100 ns. During the experiment, a current on the order of 20 MA heats thin tungsten wires and converts them into a cylincrically shaped plasma, which implodes onto its axis.
Ultimately, VisRad produces a spectrum incident on each specific surface. This animation shows the time evolution of the spectrum incident on the center of the gas cell. The total flux through the gas cell is equivalent to the sum of the spectra produced by each of the components of the experimental set-up. Though direct radiation from the pinch accounts for most of the light received, the surrounding surfaces will absorb and re-emit lower-energy photons which also reach the gas cell. The spectrum seen by the cell does not correspond to a perfect blackbody. In fact, as the simulation progresses, contributions from wall re-emission become more substantial, especially at lower photon energies, and the total spectrum appears decreasingly Planckian.
Above is an animation depicting the mass density of the gas cell as a function of position. This plot was produced from 1-D Helios simulations, assuming a neon-filled cell 1.1 cm long, with 1.4 micron-thick mylar walls surrounding it. This model takes as its input the spectrum incident on the center of the gas cell as a function of time. The wall on the left side of the gas cell, that closest to the pinch, vaporizes quickly and spills out to the left, while that on the right takes a little while longer. It appears that some of the mass from the mylar also enters the cell, though the central 5 mm of the cell remain purely neon.
Here is an example of emission spectra produced with Spect3D. Knowing the temperature and density within the gas cell as a function of time, the spectrum incident on the left wall of the cell, and the atomic energy levels of the elements composing the cell, Spect3D can synthesize both absorption and emission spectra at specified times. The emission lines depicted above weaken between 96 ns and 100 ns, the time of peak pinch power, but strengthen again as the total flux drops off.