What is High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP)/Warm Dense Matter (WDM)?

Figure showing hot and dilute plasmas and strongly coupled and degenerate plasmas

HEDP: Studying physics at very very high pressures (P > 1011 – 1015 Pa!)

Why do we care about HEDP and WDM?

  • We care about them because they widely exist in nature:
Planet cores and supernova
  • We care about them because they can now be created in laboratories:
Figure showing diamond anvil cell and dynamically driven shocks
  • We care about them because they are routinely encountered in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and HED experiments:
Figure showing DT phase space
  • Finally, we care about them because we do not fully understand the properties of matter at such exotic conditions:
  • the classical plasma theory breaks down because it's too cold!
  • the traditional condense-matter theory fails because it's too hot!
  • strong-coupling and quantum degeneracy effects play crucial roles!!