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Assessment of High Energy Density (HED) Physics
October 4, 2021 - October 5, 2021
High energy density (HED) physics has critical applications in areas such as inertial confinement fusion and the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
The Committee on the Assessment of High Energy Density (HED) Science is hosting panels to collect input during an open-session, along with closed-sessions to deliberate on process, input gathering, and writing.
Congress has requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct an assessment of HED physics research in the United States. The assessment will identify key challenges and science questions and propose ways to address them in the coming decade. It will include a particular focus on HED material phases and conditions of interest to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is the sponsor of this assessment.
BACKGROUND
Description
The Academies shall establish a committee that will articulate the recent advances, status, and future directions of high energy density (HED) physics in the United States. The committee will consider HED physics as the physics of matter and radiation at energy densities exceeding 1 x 10^11 J/m3 or other temperature and pressure ranges within the warm dense matter regime. It will include a particular focus on HED material phases, plasmas atypical of astrophysical conditions, and conditions of interest to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The committee will then develop a report that will:
• Assess the progress and achievements in HED physics over the last decade, including theory, computation, modeling and simulation, driver development, instrument development, emerging technologies, analytical methods, and target fabrication.
• Identify major scientific gaps and potential new directions in areas of modeling, simulation, instrumentation, and target fabrication that offer the most promising near- and mid-term investment opportunities.
• Identify challenges that the field may face over the next decade in realizing those opportunities and offer guidance for addressing them, including, but not limited to, investment level, interagency collaboration, research tools, and infrastructure.
• Evaluate the role of HED physics in developing an expert workforce for NNSA and assess whether changes in resources, scientific focus, access to experimental facilities, or funding levels are necessary to meet nuclear security workforce needs in the coming decade.
• Assess the state and recent advances made by other countries in HED physics and discuss the relative standing of the United States.
Please visit NASEM’s Assessment of High Energy Density (HED) Physics meeting page for more information.