August 6-9, 2024 Hotel Andaluz
Over the last several years, our ability to drive matter to unprecedented pressure / temperature states has produced significant new insights across many fields, including material science, planetary science, astrophysics, fusion science, radiation science, and plasma physics. Sandia’s Z facility is the premier facility in the world in the area of pulsed-power science and has unique capabilities to deliver high-precision data at extreme conditions. The Z facility is available to the academic community for fundamental science experiments and calls for proposals were issued in 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Projects were selected after facility and scientific peer review. Close interactions with the international research community are crucial for continued success and improvements of the Fundamental Science Program. This Workshop is the fifteenth in a series of yearly workshops held on the topic of fundamental science in extreme environments.
The 15th Fundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting returns to the Hotel Andaluz in downtown Albuquerque on Tuesday, August 6 through Friday, August 9. The Z Fundamental Science Program and this Workshop continue to be an integral part of the work on Z, bringing fresh ideas and initiatives. We feel that it is important to offer both a user meeting component – for collaborative users to present the status of their research and to hear about the Z accelerator facility status and plans – and a collaborative component – to provide an opportunity for current and prospective future collaborators to discuss research directions and ideas for new work on Z. Current collaborative research areas are Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Materials Physics, and Magnetized High Energy Density (HED) Science that is relevant to Magnetized Inertial Fusion (MagLIF).
2024 Workshop Agenda
The Breakout sessions are meant to identify key scientific development/direction enabled by the Z Fundamental Science Program to date. The focus should be more about direction, capabilities, momentum, and new scope. The Breakout sessions also provide an excellent opportunity for current and prospective future collaborators to formulate research ideas, continue ongoing collaborations, begin new collaborations, and galvanize ideas for the Call for Proposals.
The Breakout sessions can also help define the future direction of the Z Fundamental Science Program and Z by identifying:
- New research directions/ideas within existing fields and suggestions for new topics/fields
- New or extended collaborative teams
- Ways that the Z Fundamental Science Program can best support the collaborative teams
- Improvements on Z, i.e., new diagnostics or infrastructure that would be beneficial for the collaborative teams
Laboratory Astrophysics – Agenda / Barcelona Room – map / Zethran Berbel | Dan Mayes
Planetary Physics and Materials / Static to Dynamic Compression – Agenda / Majorca Room – map / Pat Kalita | Tom Hartsfield
Theory and Computation / Data Science and Machine Learning – Agenda / Valencia Room – map / Luke Stanek | Andy Porwitzky
Magnetized HED / Z-pinch – Agenda / Catalina Room – map / Daniel Ruiz | Hannah Hasson | Connor Williams
We are issuing a ninth Call for Proposals for the Z Fundamental Science Program. We plan to allocate 14 shots over a two-year period beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2027. The workshop is an excellent opportunity to formulate research ideas, continue ongoing collaborations, and start new teams.
CY24 Z Proposal Call
CY24 Call for Proposals important dates:
- June 17, 2024 Call opens
- September 16, 2024 Proposals due (to zproposals@sandia.gov)
- December 16, 2024 Notification of awards
- July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2027 Experimental award period
Experimental time on Z is a precious resource. We are committed to working in close collaboration with academic PI’s to ensure the success of the proposed experiments. As for the previous calls, prospective PI’s will work with scientists at Sandia and the Z-machine to design and execute experiments. An award of time on Z will include all hardware necessary to field the proposed experiments and assistance from the Sandia scientist(s) assigned to collaborate with you on your project. Awardees are expected to provide their own funding for their time.
A very important aspect of the Z Fundamental Science Program is the opportunity for students and academic postdocs to participate on the research teams. Throughout the lifetime of the Z Fundamental Science Program, students and academic postdocs have developed experimental platforms and diagnostics, led design reviews, and participated fully in fielding experiments on Z. We are again working with the NNSA Academic Programs to offer financial support to several students and academic postdocs to attend the workshop. NNSA is currently expecting to be able to cover costs (including transportation, lodging, and registration) for up to 30 students/academic postdocs.
If you are interested in student / academic postdoc travel support, please email Marcus Knudson and Sandy Guthrie (mdknuds@sandia.gov and sguthri@sandia.gov) and please copy Tim Ledford (William.Ledford@chickasaw.com). Requests for travel support must be received by Friday, June 28, 2024. Upon receipt of inquiry, you will receive pertinent information from Chickasaw regarding rules for reimbursement (also note that reimbursement will occur after completion of the Workshop, i.e., you will have to pay for your travel arrangements in advance and submit a request for reimbursement after the Workshop).
