The National Ignition Facility and Basic Science Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-48. Richard N. Boyd Science Director, National Ignition Facility May 6, 2006

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/072 NIF has 3 Missions National Ignition Facility Peer-reviewed Basic Science is a fundamental part of NIF’s go-forward plan Stockpile Stewardship Basic Science Fusion Energy

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/073 Our vision: open NIF to the outside scientific community to pursue frontier HED laboratory science Element formation in stars The Big Bang Planetary system formation Forming Earth-like planets Chemistry of life [

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NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/076 NIF’s Unprecedented Scientific Environments: T >10 8 K matter temperature  >10 3 g/cc density Those are both 7x what the Sun does! Helium burning, stage 2 in stellar evolution, occurs at 2x10 8 K!  n = neutrons/cc Core-collapse Supernovae, colliding neutron stars, operate at ~10 21 ! Electron Degenerate conditions Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities for (continued) laboratory study. These apply to Type Ia Supernovae! Pressure > bar Only need ~Mbar in shocked hydrogen to study the EOS in Jupiter & Saturn These certainly qualify as “unprecedented.” And Extreme!

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/077 NIF flux (cm -2 s -1 ) vs other neutron sources LANSCE/WNR Reactor SNS NIF { { { Neutrons/cm 2 s { Supernovae

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/078 The NRC committee on HEDP issued the “X- Games” report detailing this new science frontier Findings: NIF is the premier facility for exploring extreme conditions of HEDP HEDP offers frontier research opportunities in: - Plasma physics - Laser and particle beam physics - Condensed matter and materials science - Nuclear physics - Atomic and molecular physics - Fluid dynamics - Magnetohydrodynamics - Astrophysics

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/079 The NRC committee on the Physics of the Universe highlighted the new frontier of HED Science HEDP provides crucial experiments to interpret astrophysical observations Eleven science questions for the new century: 2. What is the nature of dark energy? — Type 1A SNe (burn, hydro, rad flow, EOS, opacities) 6. How do cosmic accelerators work and what are they accelerating? — Cosmic rays (strong field physics, nonlinear plasma waves) 4. Did Einstein have the last word on gravity? — Accreting black holes (photoionized plasmas, spectroscopy) 8. Are there new states of matter at exceedingly high density and temperature? — Neutron star interior (photoionized plasmas, spectroscopy, EOS) 10. How were the elements from iron to uranium made and ejected? — Core-collapse SNe (reactions off excited states, turbulent hydro, rad flow, r-process) NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0710 Core-collapse supernova explosion mechanisms remain uncertain 6 x 10 9 cm SN observations suggest rapid core penetration to the “surface” This observed turbulent core inversion is not yet fully understood Standard (spherical shock) model [Kifonidis et al., AA. 408, 621 (2003)] Density t = 1800 sec Jet model [Khokhlov et al., Ap.J.Lett. 524, L107 (1999)] Pre-supernova structure is multilayered Supernova explodes by a strong shock Turbulent hydrodynamic mixing results Core ejection depends on this turbulent hydro. Accurate 3D modeling is required, but difficult Scaled 3D testbed experiments are possible cm 9 x 10 9 cm

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0711 Three university teams are starting to prepare for NIF shots in unique regimes of HED physics Planetary physics - EOS Paul Drake, PI, U. of Mich. David Arnett, U. of Arizona, Adam Frank, U. of Rochester, Tomek Plewa, U. of Chicago, Todd Ditmire, U. Texas-Austin LLNL hydrodynamics team Raymond Jeanloz, PI, UC Berkeley Thomas Duffy, Princeton U. Russell Hemley, Carnegie Inst. Yogendra Gupta, Wash. State U. Paul Loubeyre, U. Pierre & Marie Curie, and CEA LLNL EOS team Christoph Niemann, PI, UCLA NIF Professor Chan Joshi, UCLA Warren Mori, UCLA Bedros Afeyan, Polymath David Montgomery, LANL Andrew Schmitt, NRL LLNL LPI team Astrophysics - hydrodynamics Nonlinear optical physics - LPI

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0712 Comparison of 3 He( 4 He,  ) 7 Be measured at an accelerator lab and using NIF NIF-Based Experiments E (keV) Gamow window S-Factor (keV. barn) Resonance Accelerator-Based Experiments Mono-energetic Low event rate at low energies Significant screening corrections needed Not performed at relevant energies High Count rate (3x10 5 atoms/shot) Small, manageable screening Energy window is better (a bit high) Integral experiment 7 Be background He atoms CH Ablator DT Ice DT Gas He( 4 He,  ) 7 Be  X X X    X X

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0713 Thermonuclear Reaction Rates between species i and j are of the form: S factors are extrapolated to the relevant stellar Gamow ‘weighting’ regions from higher energy experimental data – laboratory ‘cold’ electron screening effects are significant Thermonuclear reactions can be observed in ‘passive’ NIF implosions or as by products of the temperature runaway in d + t burn -but measurements challenging! 3 He( 3 He,2p)  ~ 10 8 reactions at 8 keV in 20 ps (10 17 initial nuclei, note ‘targets’) 7 Be(p,  ) 8 B ~ 4 x 10 4 reactions 3 He(  7 Be ~ 3 x 10 5 reactions 15 N(p,  ) 12 C ~ 6 x 10 6 reactions Stellar Astrophysics at NIF: Measurements of Basic Thermonuclear Reactions

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0714 A unique NIF opportunity: Study of Three-Body Reactions in the r-Process Abundance after  decay Mass Number (A) Currently believed to take place in supernovae, but we don’t know for sure r-process abundances depend on: —Weak decay rates far from stability —Nuclear masses far from stability The cross section for the  +  +n  9 Be reaction

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0715   8 Be During its s half- life, a 8 Be can capture a neutron to make 9 Be, in the r-process environment, and even in the NIF target n 9 Be If this reaction is strong, 9 Be becomes abundant,  + 9 Be  12 C+n is frequent, and the light nuclei will all have all been captured into the seeds by the time the r-process seeds get to ~Fe If it’s weak, less 12 C is made, and the seeds go up to mass 100 u or so; this seems to be what a successful r-process (at the neutron star site) requires The NIF target would be a mixture of 2 H and 3 H, to make the neutrons, with some 4 He (and more 4 He will be made during ignition). This type of experiment can’t be done with any other facility that has ever existed  +n  9 Be is the “Gatekeeper” for the r-Process

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0716 HEDP provides crucial experiments to interpreting astrophysical observations We envision that NIF will play a key role in these measurements Eleven science questions for the new century: 2. What is the nature of dark energy? — Type 1A SNe (burn, hydro, rad flow, EOS, opacities) 6. How do cosmic accelerators work and what are they accelerating? — Cosmic rays (strong field physics, nonlinear plasma waves) 4. Did Einstein have the last word on gravity? — Accreting black holes (photoionized plasmas, spectroscopy) 8. Are there new states of matter at exceedingly high density and temperature? — Neutron star interior (photoionized plasmas, spectroscopy, EOS) 10. How were the elements from iron to uranium made and ejected? — Core-collapse SNe (reactions off excited states, turbulent hydro, rad flow) NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES The NRC committee on the Physics of the Universe highlighted the new frontier of HED Science

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NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0718 Core-collapse supernova explosion mechanisms remain uncertain A new model of Supernova explosions: from Adam Burrows et al. A cutaway view shows the inner regions of a star 25 times more massive than the sun during the last split second before exploding as a SN, as visualized in a computer simulation. Purple represents the star’s inner core; Green (Brown) represents high (low) heat content From In the Burrows model, after about half a second, the collapsing inner core begins to vibrate in “g-mode” oscillations. These grow, and after about 700 ms, create sound waves with frequencies of 200 to 400 hertz. This acoustic power couples to the outer regions of the star with high efficiency, causing the SN to explode Burrows’ solution hasn’t been accepted by everyone; it’s very different from any previously proposed

NIF pptR. Boyd 04/18/0719 Opacity experiments on iron led to an improved understanding of Cepheid Variable pulsation The measured opacities of Fe under relevant conditions were larger than originally calculated New OPAL simulations reproduced the data The new opacity simulations allowed Cepheid Variable pulsations to be correctly modeled “Micro input physics” affecting the “macro output dynamics” [Rogers & Iglesias, Science 263,50 (1994); Da Silva et al., PRL 69, 438 (1992)] P 0 (days) P 1 / P OPAL Cox Tabor 6M   5M   4M   5M   6M   7M   Observations Log T(K) Log k R (cm 2 /g) Fe M shell Fe L shell and C, O, Ne K shell H He + H, He Los Alamos, Z = 0.02 OPAL, Z = 0.00 OPAL, Z = 0.02 Ar, Fe K shell