Proton radiography experiment probing the double shock nature around the α-ε phase boundary of cerium

Traditionally, to understand the density variations in matter at extreme conditions the standard Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions are applied to experiments to infer the density. Proton radiography allows the direct measurement of density. The reintroduction of the 40-mm powder driven gas gun into the proton radiography facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory has given us the opportunity to probe the α-ε phase transition states in cerium metal. A couple of experiments were fielded measuring the in-situ material density of the shocked material. A two-phase model which was developed to understand the shock states in double shocked experiments was compared with the as obtained material densities. The density comparison with the model and the interpretation of the data will be discussed. In general, there is a good agreement between the calculations and the experimental densities obtained.