Laser-driven Shock Waves
PRIN 2012AY5LEL_002 LaShoWa
Funded by: Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca (MIUR)
Calls: PRIN
Start date: 2014-02-04 End date: 2017-02-03
Total Budget: EUR 214.884,00 INO share of the total budget: EUR 107.441,00
Scientific manager: ATZENI Stefano and for INO is: Macchi Andrea
Organization/Institution/Company main assignee: Università degli Studi di Roma 1 “La Sapienza”
Calls: PRIN
Start date: 2014-02-04 End date: 2017-02-03
Total Budget: EUR 214.884,00 INO share of the total budget: EUR 107.441,00
Scientific manager: ATZENI Stefano and for INO is: Macchi Andrea
Organization/Institution/Company main assignee: Università degli Studi di Roma 1 “La Sapienza”
other Organization/Institution/Company involved:
other INO’s people involved: Fedeli LucaPegoraro FrancescoSgattoni Andrea
Abstract: The project aims at the experimental, theoretical and computational investigation of shock waves (briefly, shocks) produced by high power laser-plasma interactions.
The importance of laser-driven shocks is both fundamental for the study of matter in extreme conditions and basic processes of astrophysical interest, and applicative
for inertial confinement fusion (particularly for the innovative shock ignition approach) and the development of novel ion accelerators. The specific conditions of
interest range from the regime of very high density (exceeding solid matter values) and relatively moderate laser intensity in which shocks are predominantly of
collisional and hydrodynamic nature and are associated to pressures exceeding 100 megabar, to the regime of ultra-high laser intensities and moderate densities in
which shocks are of collisionless nature and may reach velocities exceeding 10^7 m/s, corresponding to large Mach numbers.
In order to investigate shock physics at the frontier of current research the project on the experimental side will exploit established access to European laser facilities
(LULI, PALS, RAL-CLF) for experiments on shock generation and characterization by advanced diagnostics, particularly with high temporal resolution. On the computational side, use will be made of state-of-the-art numerical codes fully developed by the group and optimized for running on top supercomputers at European HPC facilities (such as FERMI at CINECA). The simulations will be used for the design and interpretation of experiments, for feasibility studies oriented at projects
of European infrastructures for fusion (HiPER) and at the definition of a roadmap for shock ignition, and for the understanding of the physics of shocks and related
processes (instabilities, kinetic effects, ion acceleration) in widely unexplored regimes.
The importance of laser-driven shocks is both fundamental for the study of matter in extreme conditions and basic processes of astrophysical interest, and applicative
for inertial confinement fusion (particularly for the innovative shock ignition approach) and the development of novel ion accelerators. The specific conditions of
interest range from the regime of very high density (exceeding solid matter values) and relatively moderate laser intensity in which shocks are predominantly of
collisional and hydrodynamic nature and are associated to pressures exceeding 100 megabar, to the regime of ultra-high laser intensities and moderate densities in
which shocks are of collisionless nature and may reach velocities exceeding 10^7 m/s, corresponding to large Mach numbers.
In order to investigate shock physics at the frontier of current research the project on the experimental side will exploit established access to European laser facilities
(LULI, PALS, RAL-CLF) for experiments on shock generation and characterization by advanced diagnostics, particularly with high temporal resolution. On the computational side, use will be made of state-of-the-art numerical codes fully developed by the group and optimized for running on top supercomputers at European HPC facilities (such as FERMI at CINECA). The simulations will be used for the design and interpretation of experiments, for feasibility studies oriented at projects
of European infrastructures for fusion (HiPER) and at the definition of a roadmap for shock ignition, and for the understanding of the physics of shocks and related
processes (instabilities, kinetic effects, ion acceleration) in widely unexplored regimes.
INO’s Experiments/Theoretical Study correlated:
Laser-driven collisionless shock waves
Intense laser-driven shock for physics of extreme conditions (FemtoShock)
Laser-driven ion acceleration
The Scientific Results:
1) Ion viscosity effects in exploding pusher inertial confinement fusion hydrodynamic simulations2) Vlasov simulations of collisionless shock acceleration in laser-plasma interaction.