Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar: Astrophysics in the Lab - Measuring Opacity at Solar Interior Conditions at the National Ignition Facility

Astrophysics in the Lab: Measuring Opacity at Solar Interior Conditions at the National Ignition Facility

The depth of the Sun's convection zone is well known from helioseismic measurements, however, stellar structure models have estimated a significantly shallower depth since Asplund et al. 2005 published new Solar surface abundances. One hypothesis to remedy this discrepancy is that models underestimate the true value of opacities at stellar interior conditions. Experiments at the Sandia Z Machine (Z) reach temperatures and densities near the Solar Convection Zone Boundary (CZB) and show that iron opacity is much greater than models suggest at these conditions. Experiments have since progressed to measure oxygen, the largest contributor to opacity near the CZB, at both Z and the National Ignition Facility (NIF). This talk presents the current state of the NIF oxygen opacity campaign, detailing the design and analysis of the experiments.