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We describe an experimental concept at the National Ignition Facility for specifically tailored spherical implosions to compress hydrogen to extreme densities (up to $\sim$800$\times$ solid density, electron number density n$_e$$\sim$4$\times$10$^{25}$ cm$^{-3}$ ) at moderate temperatures (T$\sim$200 eV), i.e., to conditions, which are relevant to the interiors of red dwarf stars. The dense plasma will be probed by laser-generated x-ray radiation of different photon energy to determine the plasma opacity due to collisional (free-free) absorption and Thomson scattering. The obtained results will benchmark radiation transport models, which in the case for free-free absorption show strong deviations at conditions relevant to red dwarfs. This very first experimental test of free-free opacity models at these extreme states will help to constrain where inside those celestial objects energy transport is dominated by radiation or convection. Moreover, our study will inform models for other important processes in dense plasmas, which are based on electron-ion collisions, e.g., stopping of swift ions or electron-ion temperature relaxation.

Accurate modeling of the electronic structure of warm dense matter is a challenging problem whose solution would allow a better understanding of material properties like equation of state, opacity, and conductivity, with resulting applications from astrophysics to fusion energy research. Here we explore the real-space Green's function method as a technique for solving the Kohn-Sham density functional theory equations under warm dense matter conditions. We find the method to be tractable and accurate throughout the density and temperature range of interest, in contrast to other approaches. Good agreement on equation of state is found when comparing to other methods, where they are thought to be accurate.

Charge state distributions in hot, dense plasmas are a key ingredient in the calculation of spectral quantities like the opacity. However, they are challenging to calculate, as models like Saha-Boltzmann become unreliable for dense, quantum plasmas. Here we present a new variational model for the charge state distribution, along with a simple model for the energy of the configurations that includes the orbital relaxation effect. Comparison with other methods reveals generally good agreement with average atom based calculations, the breakdown of the Saha-Boltzmann method, and mixed agreement with a chemical model. We conclude that the new model gives a relatively inexpensive, but reasonably high fidelity method of calculating the charge state distribution in hot dense plasmas, in local thermodynamic equilibrium.

A new model for the electrical conductivity of dense plasmas with a mixture of ion species, containing no adjustable parameters, is presented. The model takes the temperature, mass density and relative abundances of the species as input. It takes into account partial ionization, ionic structure, and core-valence orthogonality, and uses quantum mechanical calculations of cross sections. Comparison to an existing high fidelity but computationally expensive method reveals good agreement. The new model is computationally efficient and can reach high temperatures. A new mixing rule is also presented that gives reasonably accurate conductivities for high temperature plasma mixtures.

A new Sesame-type table for the electrical conductivity of aluminum is described. The table is based on density functional theory calculations and ranges from 0.001 to 1 times solid density (2.7 g/cm^3 ), and from 0.01 to 1000 eV in temperature. The table is compared to other simulations and to experiments and is generally in good agreement. The high temperature, classical limit of the conductivity is recovered for the highest temperatures and lowest densities. The table is critically evaluated and directions for improvements are discussed.

The paper discusses the vitrophyric fraction of Apollo 15 green glasses which contain skeletal crystals of olivine. Although the crystals are uniform in composition, the coexisting glass shows a range in composition and an olivine subtraction trend. The data suggest that the vitrophyres are part of the traditional Apollo 15 green glass suite composition; the natural trend of rapid low pressure crystal-fractionation suggests that other VLT rock types cannot be derived from Apollo 15 green glass magma.