X-ray Spectroscopy of Astrophysical and Laboratory Z-pinch Plasmas

Summary

In recent years, there have been significant advances in instrumental capabilities for making X-ray spectroscopic measurements of astrophysical plasmas. There have been corresponding improvements in X-ray diagnostics for advanced multi-mega-ampere pulse power machines which produce increasingly large radiative yields from gas-puff and wire array Z pinch plasmas. Analysis used for Z pinches can be used to study ICF and also astrophysical plasmas where laboratory measurements and simulations are the only means to interpret observed data. The astrophysical data for Fe, the most cosmically abundant high Z element, can provide a wealth of information about cosmic plasmas. Fe is also the key element in stainless steel (SS) wire arrays that are investigated as an intensive X-ray radiation source at the Z machine in the US Sandia National Laboratories. The implosion dynamics of an array of SS wires on the Z and/or refurbished Z (ZR) accelerator produces an abundance of radiation from the K- and L-shell ionization stages. These dynamic plasmas are inherently non-LTE, with opacity and other factors influencing the X-ray output. As the plasma assembles on axis, a number of time resolved snapshots provide temperature and density profiles and map the emitting region. We will analyze the ionization dynamics and generate K- and L-shell spectra using the conditions generated in the Z and/or ZR, described by a 1-D non-LTE radiation hydrodynamics model. Diagnostics based on spectral shape of L-shell emissions are inherently more difficult than those based on K-shell emissions because of more complex multiplet structures and line overlaps. The non-LTE populations are obtained using detailed atomic models that include all important excitation, ionization, and recombination processes. We will highlight the connection between laboratory Z-pinch plasma simulations and astrophysical plasmas.