A special accelerator being constructed at Berkeley Lab will be used to study the physics of warm dense matter, which occurs in such astrophysical phenomena as the cores of giant planets and dwarf stars. The necessary techniques for producing warm dark matter on Earth are directly applicable to the accelerators and beam physics essential to heavy-ion fusion, a promising approach for electrical power production and long the choice of Berkeley Lab accelerator physicists. This is the second of two features on current research and the road ahead.

Heavy-ion fusion, a special approach to creating fusion for electrical power production, has long been the choice of Berkeley Lab accelerator physicists. Now the near prospect of “burn and gain” at the National Ignition Facility plus a forthcoming National Academies report on inertial confinement fusion energy have spurred new interest in heavy-ion fusion. This is Part I of a two-part overview of current research and the road ahead.

Kazakhstan is a nation rich in energy resources but plagued by a history of exploitation and a legacy of environmental disasters. With an eye to a diverse economy, sustainable growth, and responsible environmental stewardship, the newly opened Nazarbayev University is establishing a national Center for Energy Research, with guidance from a diverse team of Berkeley Lab scientists.

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment II (NDCX-II) now under construction at Berkeley Lab is an accelerator designed to create warm dense matter. The job required extensive computer modeling, including the animated simulations shown in this feature story.

Warm dense matter exists in the cores of gas giant planets and the preliminary stages of nuclear fusion, among other inaccessible places. With an accelerator built at Berkeley Lab by physicists and engineers in the Heavy Ion Fusion Science Virtual National Laboratory, a collaboration of Berkeley Lab, Livermore, and Princeton, scientists will soon be able to study it in the laboratory.