FRONTIERS IN High Energy Density Physics
THE X-GAMES OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This project was supported by the Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG20-00ER54612. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
Front Cover: Background image: Hubble Space Telescope image of the Cygnus Loop—the shock wave from a 20,000-year-old supernova in the constellation of Cygnus. Courtesy of NASA. Inset images: the Z-Machine, courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories; the OMEGA laser, courtesy of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester; and results from the first gold-on-gold collision experiments at the Relativisitic Heavy Ion Collider, courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Back Cover: The target chamber at the National Ignition Facility, courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and three-dimensional PIC simulation of a plasma wakefield accelerator, courtesy of R.Fonseca, Instituto Superior Técnico of Portugal, and the E-162 collaboration.
Library of Congress Control Number 2003103684
International Standard Book Number 0-309-08637-X
Additional copies of this report are available from: The
National Academies Press,
500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624– 6242 or (202) 334–3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet <http://www.nap.edu>; and the Board on Physics and Astronomy, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001; Internet <http://www.national-academies.org/bpa>.
Copyright 2003 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M.Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm.A.Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V.Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M.Alberts and Dr. Wm.A.Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON HIGH ENERGY DENSITY PLASMA PHYSICS
RONALD C.DAVIDSON,
Princeton University,
Chair
DAVID ARNETT,
University of Arizona
JILL DAHLBURG,
General Atomics
PAUL DIMOTAKIS,
California Institute of Technology
DANIEL DUBIN,
University of California, San Diego
GERALD GABRIELSE,
Harvard University
DAVID HAMMER,
Cornell University
THOMAS KATSOULEAS,
University of Southern California
WILLIAM KRUER,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
RICHARD LOVELACE,
Cornell University
DAVID MEYERHOFER,
University of Rochester
BRUCE REMINGTON,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
ROBERT ROSNER,
University of Chicago
ANDREW SESSLER,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
PHILLIP SPRANGLE,
Naval Research Laboratory
ALAN TODD,
Advanced Energy Systems
JONATHAN WURTELE,
University of California, Berkeley
Staff
DONALD C.SHAPERO, Director
MICHAEL H.MOLONEY, Study Director (from September 2001)
ACHILLES D.SPELIOTOPOULOS, Study Director (November 2000–September 2001)
CYRA A.CHOUDHURY, Project Associate
PAMELA A.LEWIS, Project Associate
NELSON QUIÑONES, Project Assistant
PLASMA SCIENCE COMMITTEE
THOMAS M.O’NEIL,
University of California, San Diego,
Chair
MICHAEL S.BARNES,
Applied Materials
ALLEN BOOZER,
Columbia University
JOHN CARY,
University of Colorado, Boulder
CYNTHIA A.CATTELL,
University of Minnesota
CARY FOREST,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
WALTER GEKELMAN,
University of California, Los Angeles
MARK J.KUSHNER,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DAVID MEYERHOFER,
University of Rochester
CLAUDIO PELLEGRINI,
University of California, Los Angeles
DMITRI RYUTOV,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
STEWART J.ZWEBEN,
Princeton University
Staff
DONALD C.SHAPERO, Director
MICHAEL H.MOLONEY, Program Officer
TIMOTHY I.MEYER, Research Associate
PAMELA A.LEWIS, Project Associate
NELSON QUIÑONES, Project Assistant
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
JOHN P.HUCHRA,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
Chair
ROBERT C.RICHARDSON,
Cornell University,
Vice Chair
JONATHAN BAGGER,
Johns Hopkins University
GORDON A.BAYM,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CLAUDE R.CANIZARES,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
WILLIAM EATON,
National Institutes of Health
WENDY L.FREEDMAN,
Carnegie Observatories
FRANCES HELLMAN,
University of California, San Diego
KATHRYN LEVIN,
University of Chicago
CHUAN SHENG LIU,
University of Maryland
LINDA J. (LEE) MAGID,
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
THOMAS M.O’NEIL,
University of California, San Diego
JULIA M.PHILLIPS,
Sandia National Laboratories
BURTON RICHTER,
Stanford University
ANNEILA I.SARGENT,
California Institute of Technology
JOSEPH H.TAYLOR, JR.,
Princeton University
THOMAS N.THEIS,
IBM Thomas J.Watson Research Center
CARL E.WIEMAN,
University of Colorado/JILA
Staff
DONALD C.SHAPERO, Director
ROBERT L.RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
MICHAEL H.MOLONEY, Program Officer
BRIAN DEWHURST, Research Associate
TIMOTHY I.MEYER, Research Associate
PAMELA A.LEWIS, Project Associate
NELSON QUIÑONES, Project Assistant
VAN AN, Financial Associate
Preface
The Committee on High Energy Density Plasma Physics was established in April 2001 by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Board on Physics and Astronomy to identify scientific opportunities and develop a unifying theme for research on matter under extreme high energy density conditions. Specifically, the committee was charged with the following tasks: (a) to review recent advances in the field of high energy density plasma phenomena, on both the laboratory scale and the astrophysical scale; (b) to provide a scientific assessment of the field, identifying compelling research opportunities and intellectual challenges; (c) to develop a unifying framework for diverse aspects of the field; (d) to outline a strategy for extending the forefronts of the field through scientific experiments at various facilities where high energy density plasmas can be created; and (e) to discuss the roles of national laboratories, universities, and industry in achieving these objectives.
While this is a challenging set of tasks, the committee recognizes that now is a highly opportune time for the nation’s scientists to develop a fundamental understanding of the physics of high energy density plasmas. The space-based and ground-based instruments for measuring astrophysical processes under extreme conditions are unprecedented in their accuracy and detail. In addition, a new generation of sophisticated laboratory systems (“drivers”), now existing or planned, creates matter under extreme high energy density conditions (exceeding 1011 J/m3), permitting the detailed exploration of physical phenomena under conditions not unlike those in astrophysical systems. High energy density experiments span a wide range of areas of physics including plasma physics, materials science and condensed matter
physics, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, and astrophysics. While a number of scientific areas are represented in high energy density physics, many of the high energy density research techniques have grown out of ongoing research in plasma science, astrophysics, beam physics, accelerator physics, magnetic fusion, inertial confinement fusion, and nuclear weapons research. The intellectual challenge of high energy density physics lies in the complexity and nonlinearity of the collective interaction processes.
Several important findings became apparent during the committee’s deliberations; they are detailed in the report. Two key findings are mentioned here. First, a consensus is emerging in the plasma physics and astrophysics communities that many opportunities exist for significant advances in understanding the physics of high energy density plasmas through an integrated approach to investigating the scientific issues in related subfields. Understanding the physics of high energy density plasmas will also lead to new applications and will benefit other areas of science. Furthermore, learning to control and manipulate high energy density plasmas in the laboratory will benefit national programs, such as inertial confinement fusion and the stockpile stewardship program, through the development of new ideas and the training of a new generation of scientists and engineers.
Second, the committee is convinced that research opportunities in this crosscutting area of physics are of the highest intellectual caliber and are fully deserving of consideration of support by the leading funding agencies of the physical sciences. A broad federal support base for research in high energy density physics, including plasma science, and the encouragement of interagency research initiatives in this interdisciplinary field would greatly strengthen the ability of the nation’s universities to have a significant impact on this exciting field of physics.
The committee was very proactive in collecting information for its deliberations, meeting frequently by conference call and through electronic communication and engaging the scientific community through several professional society mailings, expert briefings of the committee, and site visits, and through a “town meeting” held at the October 2001 annual meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society in Long Beach, California. The full committee met on three occasions after its formation in April 2001—on May 11–12, 2001, in Washington, D.C.; on November 2–4, 2001, in Irvine, California; and at a final meeting on March 15–16, 2002, in Washington, D.C.
During this assessment, the committee received the encouragement, support, and expert counsel of many individuals to whom it is indebted, including Christopher Keane of the National Nuclear Security Administration; Ronald McKnight of the Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences; Tom O’Neil and the NRC’s Plasma Science Committee; and Michael Moloney, Achilles Speliotopoulos, and Donald Shapero of the National Research Council. The committee is also
grateful to the following physicists who made important scientific contributions to the preparation of this report: Jonathan Aarons, Bedros Afeyan, Yefim Aglitskiy, William Barletta, Christopher Barty, Gordon Baym, Richard Berger, Gennadii Bisnovatyi-Kogan, Roger Blandford, Deborah Callahan-Miller, Michael Campbell, Pisin Chen, Stirling Colgate, Christopher Deeney, Todd Ditmire, Jonathan Dorfan, Paul Drake, Jim Dunn, Fred Dylla, Juan Fernandez, Nathaniel Fisch, Alex Friedman, Siegfried Glenzer, Daniel Goodin, Michael Harrison, Stephen Hatchett, Alan Hauer, Mark Hogan, Zhirong Huang, Chan Joshi, Alexander Koldoba, Glenn Kubiak, Dong Lai, Otto Landen, Richard Lee, Wim Leemans, Hui Li, Edison Liang, Steve Libby, Grant Logan, Dennis Matthews, Keith Matzen, Robert McCrory, Dan Meiron, Paul Messina, Peter Meszaros, George Miller, Warren Mori, Gerard Mourou, Johnny Ng, Stephen Obenschain, Marina Romanova, Francesco Ruggiero, Jack Shlachter, Gennady Shvets, Richard Siemon, Richard Sluten, Paul Springer, Richard Stephens, David Stevenson, James Stone, Galia Ustyugova, Bruce Warner, Ira Wasserman, Bernard Wilde, Alan Wootton, Craig Wuest, and Sasha Zholents.
Additional thanks go to the following individuals, who made an important contribution through the provision of images for inclusion in this report: James Bailey, John Biretta, Kimberly Budil, Robert Cauble, Gilbert Collins, David Farley, Nathaniel Fisch, John Foster, Miguel Furman, Peter Garnavich, Gail Glendinning, Jacob Grun, Walter Jaffe, William Junor, Konstantinos Kifonidis, Manooch Koochesfahani, Christine Labaune, Sergey Lebedev, Mario Livio, Andrew Mackinnon, Vladimir Malkin, Stephen Obenschain, David Reis, Yasuhiko Sentoku, Bert Still, Hugh Van Horn, Shuoqin Wang, Craig West, Scott Wilks, Stanford Woosley, and Simon Yu.
In formulating its findings and recommendations, the committee benefited from extensive discussions with members of the scientific community. The committee was charged with assessing the current status of high energy density physics and identifying the compelling research opportunities. While key facilities and facility upgrades for carrying out this research are identified in the report, the establishment of priorities and ranking of facilities were beyond the committee’s charge, but certainly merit a future study.
The reader should note that the committee made the decision early on in the drafting of this report not to include references except for the sources of figures. The committee believed that a partial listing would not be appropriate.
On a personal note, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all members of the committee for the conscientious efforts that they have devoted to this important study, particularly to David Meyerhofer and Bruce Remington for leading the preparation of the chapter on high energy density laboratory plasmas; to Bob Rosner and David Arnett for the chapter on high energy density astrophysical systems; to Tom Katsouleas and Phillip Sprangle for the chapter on laser-plasma and
beam-plasma interactions; and to David Hammer for his critical proofreading of the final draft report.
On behalf of the committee, I would also like to express our appreciation to Michael Turner and the NRC’s Committee on the Physics of the Universe (CPU) for recognizing the important role of high energy density physics in their seminal assessment of the key questions and research opportunities at the intersection of physics and astronomy.1 This committee is particularly gratified that the CPU report identifies the important role that laboratory facilities, such as high-power lasers and high-energy accelerators, can play in simulating the conditions that govern extreme astrophysical environments, ranging from gamma-ray bursts to quark-gluon plasmas in the early universe.
In conclusion, the committee believes that now is a very opportune time to make major advances in the physics of understanding matter under extreme high energy density conditions. A sustained commitment by the federal government, the national laboratories, and the university community to answer the questions of high intellectual value identified by the committee and to implement the recommendations of this report will contribute significantly to the timely realization of these exciting research opportunities and the advancement of this important field of physics.
Ronald C.Davidson, Chair
Committee on High Energy Density Plasma Physics
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Roger D.Blandford, California Institute of Technology,
Michael Campbell, General Atomics,
Walter Gekelman, University of California, Los Angeles,
Alice Harding, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Gerard A.Mourou, University of Michigan,
Julia M.Phillips, Sandia National Laboratories,
Dmitri Ryutov, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and
Robert H.Siemann, Stanford University.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommenda-
tions, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Clifford Surko, University of California, San Diego. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.