Physics Colloquium with Arianna Gleason-Holbrook, Stanford University

Arianna Gleason-Holbrook, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University on:

Frontier of Matter at Extremes – Habitable Exoplanets to Harnessing Star-Power

The study of matter under extreme conditions is a highly interdisciplinary subject with broad applications to materials science, plasma physics, geophysics and astrophysics. Understanding the processes which dictate physical properties in warm dense plasmas and condensed matter, requires studies at the relevant length-scales (e.g., interatomic spacing) and time-scales (e.g., phonon period). Experiments performed at XFEL light sources across the world, combined with dynamic compression, provide ever-improving spatial- and temporal-fidelity to push the frontier. This talk will cover a very broad range of conditions, intended to present an overview of important recent developments in how we generate extreme environments and then how we characterize and probe matter at extremes conditions– providing an atom-eye view of transformations and the fundamental physics dictating plasma and materials properties. Examples of case-studies closely related to: 1) planetary sciences and how we are exploring the conditions relevant to super-Earth discovery and characteristics needed for habitability, and 2) addressing the global climate challenges through fusion science discovery and advancements in inertial fusion energy technology, as enabled by ultrafast X-ray imaging, diffraction and spectroscopy, will be discussed.