Creating neutron star matter on the Omega-60 laser

Neutron stars (NS) are some of the most extreme objects in the universe containing about 1-2 solar masses in a radius of about 10 km. Models separate the star into a thin solid crust, and a poorly understood liquid core. The temperature at the boundary between the NS crust and core is sensitive to the thermal X-ray emission from the surface. The dimensions of and distances to NSs make it very difficult to observe the surface emission, of which there are few examples in the literature. The crust is a hot, strongly coupled plasma that is radiation dominated near the surface. Understanding the radiation transport in these plasmas is important for modeling NS crusts and their connection to the conditions in the core.

The work presented here uses the Omega-60 laser to implode capsules to study radiation hydrodynamics in NS envelopes. Simulation results suggest that a thin, metal layer on the interior surface of a capsule creates NS envelope conditions. Filtered self-emission images show the evolution of the capsule metal and emission spectroscopy provide information on the conditions in the imploded metal and radiation transport.