Measurement and Modeling of Temperature in Laboratory Photoionized Plasmas

Measurements of the electron temperature in laboratory photoionized plasma experiments have shown significant discrepancies with predictions computed with astrophysical modeling codes¹. However, simulations of the experiments performed with radiation-hydrodynamics codes have produced good temperature comparisons between theory and observation. For the conditions of the experiments, the heating and temperature of the photoionized plasmas mainly depend on radiative heating and cooling. In turn, the temperature impacts the level population distribution that determines the opacity and emissivity of the plasma. We will discuss the differences in assumptions and approximations used in the physics models employed in the astrophysical and radiation-hydrodynamics modeling codes and how they can impact the temperature prediction.

¹R. C. Mancini et al, Phys. Rev. E 101, 051201(R) (2020). This work is supported by DOE NNSA NLUF Grant DE-NA0003936.