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!!