LLE Talks: Some representative results on laboratory planetology at LULI

The Laserlab-Europe Talk “Some representative results on laboratory planetology at LULI” by Alessandra Benuzzi-Mounaix (CNRS-LULI, France) has taken place on 28 February 2024.

While the number of exoplanets detected is growing at such an incredible pace as to make them a new class of astrophysical objects, the physical properties required for modelling their interiors are currently lacking. In addition to exoplanet modelling, important controversies also remain for the planets constituting our solar system. The knowledge of basic physical properties of materials composing the planetary interiors is fundamental to understand important phenomena such as magnetic field generation or luminosity. Planetology in laboratory is a domain devoted to characterize matter at planetary interior conditions by recreating in a controlled laboratory environment these conditions. Here, I present a summary of relevant results obtained mainly on LULI2000 using shock and alternative compression methods coupled with visible and X-ray diagnostics. We focused our efforts on pure and mixed H2O and NH3 [1-3] as well as MgO-SiO2 systems [4] that are relevant for planetary interiors. We measured equations of state, reflectivity along the principal Hugoniot, as well as some off-Hugoniot conditions (using static and dynamic pre-compression [4]). We also developed the X-ray diffraction diagnostic to obtain information on structural changes in situ [5].

#laboratory #planetology #laboratoryplanetology #astrophysics #planetaryinterior #xray

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The Laserlab-Europe Talks consist of a series of online seminars and panel discussions proposed and organised by our community on specific topics (thematic or research-specific) and provide a platform for regular information exchange and knowledge sharing.

The talks take place on a Wednesday afternoon each month and are open to all interested parties, from PhD students to experts in the field and industrial and medical partners as appropriate.

For more information: https://www.laserlab-europe.eu/events...

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References:
[1] A.Ravasio et al “Metallization of Shock-Compressed Liquid Ammonia” Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 025003 (2021)
[2] M. Guarguaglini et al. Laser-driven shock compression of “synthetic planetary mixtures” of water, ethanol, and ammonia” Sci. Rep. 9, 10155 (2019).
[3] J.−A. Hernandez et al. Melting curve of superionic ammonia at planetary interior conditions. Nature Physics, 2023, 19 (9), pp.1372−1372
[4] M. Guarguaglini et al.. Electrical conductivity of warm dense silica from double−shock experiments. Nature Communications, Nature Publishing Group, 2021, 12 (1), pp.840.
[5] A. Denoeud, et al.. X−ray powder diffraction in reflection geometry on multi−beam kJ−type laser facilities. Review of Scientific Instruments, American Institute of Physics, 2021, 92 (1)