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Title: Atomic modeling of photoionization fronts in nitrogen gas

Abstract

Photoionization fronts play a dominant role in many astrophysical environments but remain difficult to achieve in a laboratory experiment. Recent papers have suggested that experiments using a nitrogen medium held at ten atmospheres of pressure which is irradiated by a source with a radiation temperature of TR ~ 100 eV can produce viable photoionization fronts. We present a suite of one-dimensional numerical simulations using the Helios multimaterial radiation hydrodynamics code that models these conditions and the formation of a photoionization front. We study the effects of varying the atomic kinetics and radiative transfer model on the hydrodynamics and ionization state of the nitrogen gas, finding that more sophisticated physics, in particular, a multi-angle long characteristic radiative transfer model and a collisional-radiative atomics model, dramatically changes the atomic kinetic evolution of the gas. A photoionization front is identified by computing the ratios between the photoionization rate, the electron impact ionization rate, and the total recombination rate. We find that due to the increased electron temperatures found using more advanced physics that photoionization fronts are likely to form in our nominal model. We report the results of several parameter studies. In one of these, the nitrogen pressure is fixed at ten atmospheresmore » and the source radiation temperature is varied, while in another, the temperature is fixed at 100 eV and the nitrogen pressure is varied. In conclusion, lower nitrogen pressures increase the likelihood of generating a photoionization front while varying the peak source temperature has little effect.« less

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
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  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1638346
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1511895
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0003869; NA0002956; B614207
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 26; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; radiative transfer; atomic and molecular physics; photoionization; hydrodynamics simulations

Citation Formats

Gray, William J., Keiter, P. A., Lefevre, H., Patterson, C. R., Davis, J. S., Powell, K. G., Kuranz, C. C., and Drake, R. P. Atomic modeling of photoionization fronts in nitrogen gas. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5090803.
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Gray, William J., Keiter, P. A., Lefevre, H., Patterson, C. R., Davis, J. S., Powell, K. G., Kuranz, C. C., & Drake, R. P. Atomic modeling of photoionization fronts in nitrogen gas. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090803
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Gray, William J., Keiter, P. A., Lefevre, H., Patterson, C. R., Davis, J. S., Powell, K. G., Kuranz, C. C., and Drake, R. P. Fri . "Atomic modeling of photoionization fronts in nitrogen gas". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090803. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1638346.
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@article{osti_1638346,
title = {Atomic modeling of photoionization fronts in nitrogen gas},
author = {Gray, William J. and Keiter, P. A. and Lefevre, H. and Patterson, C. R. and Davis, J. S. and Powell, K. G. and Kuranz, C. C. and Drake, R. P.},
abstractNote = {Photoionization fronts play a dominant role in many astrophysical environments but remain difficult to achieve in a laboratory experiment. Recent papers have suggested that experiments using a nitrogen medium held at ten atmospheres of pressure which is irradiated by a source with a radiation temperature of TR ~ 100 eV can produce viable photoionization fronts. We present a suite of one-dimensional numerical simulations using the Helios multimaterial radiation hydrodynamics code that models these conditions and the formation of a photoionization front. We study the effects of varying the atomic kinetics and radiative transfer model on the hydrodynamics and ionization state of the nitrogen gas, finding that more sophisticated physics, in particular, a multi-angle long characteristic radiative transfer model and a collisional-radiative atomics model, dramatically changes the atomic kinetic evolution of the gas. A photoionization front is identified by computing the ratios between the photoionization rate, the electron impact ionization rate, and the total recombination rate. We find that due to the increased electron temperatures found using more advanced physics that photoionization fronts are likely to form in our nominal model. We report the results of several parameter studies. In one of these, the nitrogen pressure is fixed at ten atmospheres and the source radiation temperature is varied, while in another, the temperature is fixed at 100 eV and the nitrogen pressure is varied. In conclusion, lower nitrogen pressures increase the likelihood of generating a photoionization front while varying the peak source temperature has little effect.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5090803},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 5,
volume = 26,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Fri May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5090803
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Cited by: 4 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Schematic view of the experiment setup. The energy input on the left boundary is parameterized by TR while the gas cell is parameterized by the nitrogen pressure, NP. The length of the gas cell is fixed at 7 mm.
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