High-energy density physics group (HEDP) scientist and The Ohio State University Physics Department lecturer, Dr. Kramer Akli has been awarded a 450K DOE grant. The funding will be used to create and study star-like conditions in the laboratory. Dr. Akli will use his grant to support two graduate students. As a part of their PhD theses, one of the students will conduct experiments using the SCARLET Petawatt laser, while the other will run large-scale simulations on OSC to interpret the results.

High-energy density plasmas are states of matter where the energy density exceeds 1010 J/m3. These energy densities are prevalent in astrophysical objects such as neutron stars, pulsars, gamma ray bursts, and the cores of the Sun and giant planets. The Scarlet laser is expected to heat and/or compress matter to energy densities well beyond this limit.