Séminaires LLR

Laboratory Astrophysics with High Power Lasers

par Alessandra Ravasio (LULI)

Europe/Paris
Seminar room (LLR)

Seminar room

LLR

Description
The development of high power lasers in the last two decades has opened a new field of research where astrophysical phenomena can be studied in laboratory experiments. This new class of experimental science is complementary to astronomical observations, which cannot always give conclusive explanations due to insufficient data or too long timescales of the investigated phenomena. The possibility of performing well-designed laboratory simulations to study processes that occur in astrophysical objects has been demonstrated and can contribute to understand different processes and to validate complex simulations. In this talk, we will give examples of this new approach. In particular we will present a recent experiment aiming at investigating the interaction between two nested supersonic plasma flows. Understanding how the interaction might collimate an uncollimated outflow is of particular interest for assessing jet formation paradigms. We will show how experimental data combined with hydrodynamic simulations corroborate theoretical astrophysics investigations, up to now unsupported.
Slides