Supernova hydrodynamics experiments on the Nova laser

B. A. Remington, J. Kane, R. P. Drake, S. G. Glendinning, K. Estabrook, R. London, J. Castor, R. J. Wallace, D. Arnett, E. Liang, R. McCray, A. Rubenchik, and B. Fryxell

^a)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550

^b)University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
^c)University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
^d)Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251
^e)University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
^f)University of California, Davis, California 95616
^g)George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030

In studying complex astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae, one does not have the luxury of setting up clean, well-controlled experiments in the universe to test the physics of current models and theories. Consequently, creating a surrogate environment to serve as an experimental astrophysics testbed would be highly beneficial. The existence of highly sophisticated, modern research lasers, developed largely as a result of the world-wide effort in inertial confinement fusion, opens a new potential for creating just such an experimental testbed utilizing well-controlled, well-diagnosed laser-produced plasmas. Two areas of physics critical to an understanding of supernovae are discussed that are amenable to supporting research on large lasers: (1) compressible nonlinear hydrodynamic mixing and (2) radiative shock hydrodynamics. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.

PII: S1070-664X(97)91205-2
PACS: 97.60.Bw, 52.50.Jm, 52.70.La, 52.35.Py