POLAR project: a numerical study to optimize the target design

Abstract

Modern high-energy density facilities allow us to bring matter to extreme states of density, temperature and velocity. Rigorous scaling laws proved that the relevant regimes could be reached, and those regimes are reproducibly achievable. Using powerful lasers and adapted target designs, similarity experiments in the POLAR project aim at studying the formation and dynamics of accretion shocks as found in magnetic cataclysmic variables. At the astrophysical scale, the system we consider is a column of infalling plasma collimated by a magnetic field onto the surface of a white dwarf. As matter hits the surface with supersonic velocity, a shock forms at the basis of the column and propagates upstream. In this paper, numerical simulations are presented in order to describe the experience and to give expectations concerning physical regimes reachable for future experiments on a kilojoule facility. In particular, our target design is discussed and improvements are detailed.