Our scientists and engineers conduct applied and fundamental theoretical research in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, high explosives, materials strength, damage, spall, ejecta, friction, phase transition kinetics, opacities, warm plasmas, turbulence, and nuclear cross sections. Our techniques range from atomistic modeling to continuum mechanics to large-scale massively-parallel multi physics simulation.
We collaborate in the design and analysis of small-scale and integral validation experiments for material models and physical data and play a major role in uncertainty quantification for simulations.
We also create and maintain tools that provide the interfaces between the large-scale simulation codes and the physical property databases. We are the link between theoretical and experimental researchers, on one hand, and the large-scale numerical-simulation code developers and device modelers, on the other.
We pursue this mission in tandem with our colleagues in the Theoretical, X-Theoretical Design, and Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences divisions; and we collaborate with other researchers across the Laboratory, throughout the Department of Energy complex, and across the academic community.
Nuclear-reaction data
- Assessment of cross-section evaluations
- Uncertainty quantification
- Verification and validation
- Critical benchmarking
- Processing into libraries for transport applications (e.g. For MCNP)
- Creation of nuclear data processing capabilities (e.g., NJOY21)
Mechanics of Materials
- Constitutive behavior at high strains and high strain rates
- Damage and spall models under highly dynamic conditions
- Solid-solid phase transition kinetics
Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
- Statistical physics of warm dense matter
- Electronic structure and quantum molecular dynamics
- Development of practical software for predicting and correlating thermodynamic properties of materials
- Creation of tabular equations of state (e.g., SESAME equations of state) over broad ranges of conditions
Atomic Physics and Opacities
- Fundamental and computational atomic physics
- Modeling/predicting materials’ opacities.
- Verification and validation of opacity data libraries
- Spectral interpretation and post processing
Multi physics Simulations
- Verification and validation of material and physics models in large-scale multi physics codes
- Design and interpretation of small-scale and integrated experiments
- Support for NNSA customers using our physical and material datasets in computational-physics applications
- Extending our fundamental understanding of atomic, nuclear, and materials physics
- Enhancing the predictive capability of multi physics simulations
- Designing and interpreting highly dynamic multi physics experiments
- Modeling nuclear weapon performance
- Enhancing global security and nuclear nonproliferation studies
- Simulating inertial confinement fusion
- Investigating astrophysical phenomena
March 2016: XCP-5 Authors Recognized by Editors of J. Phys. B: Congratulations to the ASC PEM Atomic Physics project (including XCP-5 group members Chris Fontes, Honglin Zhang, and Peter Hakel) on their recent publication The Los Alamos Suite of Relativistic Atomic Physics Codes, which the editors of the Journal of Physics B selected as one of the "Highlights of 2015."
June 2016: FESTR Finite-Element Spectral Transfer of Radiation spectroscopic modeling and analysis code.
P. Hakel, Computer Physics Communication 207, 415 (2016)
September 2016: XCP-5 Author Recognized by the Editors of Phys. Rev. D: Congratulations to XCP-5 postdoc Daniel Blaschke and T-2 co-author Vincenzo Cirigliano on their recent publication Neutrino quantum kinetic equations: The collision term, which has been designated a "PRD Editors' Suggestion — a small fraction of papers which we judge to be particularly important, interesting, and well written.”
October 2016: Observation of interspecies ion separation in inertial-confinement fusion implosions.
S. C. Hsu, T. R. Joshi, P. Hakel, E. L. Vold, M. J. Schmitt, N. M. Hoffman, R. M. Rauenzahn, G. Kagan, X.-Z. Tang, R. C. Mancini, Y. Kim, and H. W. Herrmann, Europhysics Letters 115, 65001 (2016).
March 2017: Observation and modeling of interspecies ion separation in inertial confinement fusion implosions via imagining x-ray spectroscopy
T. R. Joshi, P. Hakel, S. C. Hsu, E. L. Vold, M. J. Schmitt, N. M. Hoffman, R. M. Rauenzahn, G. Kagan, X.-Z. Tang, R. C. Mancini, Y. Kim, and H. W. Herrmann, Physics of Plasmas 24, 056305 (2017).
April 2019: FESTR Finite-Element Spectral Transfer of Radiation spectroscopic modeling and analysis code (New Version Announcement)
P. Hakel, Computer Physics Communications 242, 156 (2019).
June 2019: Progress on observations of interspecies ion separation in inertial-confinement-fusion implosions via imaging x-ray spectroscopy
T. R. Joshi, S. C. Hsu, P. Hakel, N. M. Hoffman, H. Sio, and R. C. Mancini, Physics of Plasmas 26, 062702 (2019).
December 2020: Experiments and simulations of isochorically heated warm dense carbon foam at the Texas Petawatt Laser
R. Roycroft, P. A. Bradley, E. McCary, B. Bowers, H. Smith, G. M. Dyer, B. J. Albright, S. Blouin, P. Hakel, H. J. Quevedo, E. L. Vold, L. Yin, and B. M. Hegelich, Matter and Radiation at Extremes 6, 014403 (2021).
March 2021: Sodium tracer measurements of an expanded dense aluminum plasma from e-beam isochoric heating
N. B. Ramey, J. E. Coleman, P. Hakel, H. E. Morris, J. Colgan, J. E. Barefield, C. J. Fontes, R. M. Gilgenbach, and R. D. McBride, Physics of Plasmas, 28 033301 (2021).