Recent Progress at the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties

We explore recent physical and astrophysical progress in the current suite of experiments conducted by the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties (WCAPP) on the Z-machine at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), as well as preliminary results from a new series of experiments, begun last year, at NIF. This work is fundamental. Our goal is to benchmark models and improve our understanding of the Sun and Sun-like stars, white dwarf stars and radiation dominated plasma in accretion disks around compact objects–including supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. We will also be in a position to contribute to cross calibrating the NIF and Z opacity platforms. The talks that follow in this section will detail the progress we have made in each of these areas.