[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Special Seminar today at 16:00

[TRIUMF Seminars]

Date/Time: Mon 2014-09-15 at 16:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Andrew Ng (UBC)

Title:     Warm Dense Matter: The transition state between solid and Plasma

Abstract: Warm Dense Matter refers to states in which the electron temperature is comparable to the Fermi energy and the ion-ion interaction potential exceeds the ion kinetic energy.  Physical properties of such states are dominated by degeneracy, excited electronic states, and strong ion-ion correlation.  Warm Dense Matter occupies an important region of the phase diagram as the transition state between solid and plasma.  Yet, it cannot be described adequately by either condensed matter or plasma physics.  Since its introduction in 1999, Warm Dense Matter has emerged as a new frontier in condensed matter and plasma physics.  It is also attracting growing interest in broad disciplines including matter under extreme conditions, high power laser ablation, inertial confinement fusion, shock wave, planetary physics and astrophysics. 

A daunting challenge in the study of Warm Dense Matter is the measurement of physical properties of a well-defined, uniform state.   In this lecture, I will highlight some of our discoveries made in femtosecond laser pump-probe experiments.  These have revealed unique behaviours in lattice stability, electron-ion coupling and electron kinetics in Warm Dense Matter states far from equilibrium, underscoring respectively the condense matter, plasma, and atomic nature of Warm Dense Matter.

Stimulants available 15 minutes before the talk.

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General TRIUMF seminar information available at http://www.triumf.ca/home/upcoming-events/about-seminars-lectures