Code-to-Code Comparison and Validation of the Radiation-Hydrodynamics Capabilities of the FLASH Code Using a Laboratory Astrophysical Jet

TL;DR

This study validates the FLASH radiation-hydrodynamics code against HYDRA simulations and experimental data from laboratory astrophysical jets, confirming its accuracy in modeling high energy density plasma phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed code-to-code comparison and experimental validation of FLASH's capabilities in simulating laboratory astrophysical jets.

Findings

FLASH results closely match HYDRA simulations.

Validated FLASH against experimental electron density measurements.

Enhanced understanding of jet formation in high energy density physics.

Abstract

The potential for laser-produced plasmas to yield fundamental insights into high energy density physics (HEDP) and deliver other useful applications can sometimes be frustrated by uncertainties in modeling the properties and behavior of these plasmas using radiation-hydrodynamics codes. In an effort to overcome this and to corroborate the accuracy of the HEDP capabilities in the publicly available FLASH radiation-hydrodynamics code, we present detailed code-to-code comparisons between FLASH and the HYDRA code developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory using previously published HYDRA simulations from Grava et al. (2008). That study describes a laser experiment that produced a jet-like feature that the authors compare to astrophysical jets. Importantly, the Grava et al. (2008) experiment included detailed x-ray interferometric measurements of electron number densities and a time-integrated measurement of the soft x-ray spectrum. Despite markedly different methods for treating the computational mesh, and different equation of state and opacity models, the FLASH results resemble the results from HYDRA and, most importantly, the experimental measurements of electron density. Having validated the FLASH code in this way, we use the code to further investigate and understand the formation of the jet seen in the Grava et al. (2008) experiment and discuss its relation to the Wan et al. (1997) experiment at the NOVA laser.