Overview of the Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX)

The Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX), to be built at LANL, will explore and demonstrate the feasibility of forming imploding spherical ``plasma liners'' that can reach peak pressures $\sim 0.1$~Mbar upon stagnation. The liners will be formed via merging of 30 dense, high Mach number plasma jets ($n\sim 10^{17}$~cm$^{-3}$, $M\sim 10$--35, $v\sim 50$--70~km/s, $r_{jet}\sim 5$~cm) in spherically convergent geometry. This is a staged, exploratory project where scientific issues will be studied first at modest stored energies ($\sim 300$~kJ) before attempting to reach HED-relevant pressures (requiring $\sim 1.5$~MJ)\@. We have arrived at these numbers via extensive 3D hydrodynamic simulations. The primary scientific goals are to identify/resolve physics issues and to develop a predictive understanding of plasma liner formation, liner ram pressure amplification during liner convergence, conversion of liner kinetic energy to thermal/radiation energy of the stagnated system, and confinement time of this energy. We are aiming for two scaled-up follow-on applications for this work if it is successful: (1)~assembling repetitive, macroscopic (cm and $\mu$s scale) plasmas suitable for fundamental HEDP studies and (2)~a standoff driver solution for magneto-inertial fusion. This poster provides an overview of the project and the research plan. Supported by the DOE Joint Program in HEDLP.