2014年7月17日 Nature $ H* W: |1 ]) r. z8 R7 s1 }" N3 H+ m7 G6 ^5 t& d
The interior of the target chamber at the [url=http://staging-www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7509/full/511294a.html]National Ignition Facility[/url] (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California - the object entering from the right is the target positioner, on which a centimetre-scale target is mounted. Knowledge of the behaviour of matter under conditions of extreme pressure is essential for describing the interior state of giant planets such as Jupiter and many extrasolar planets. The NIF is pursuing laboratory astrophysics with shock-free dynamic (ramp) compression up to 50 million atmospheres pressure. Working with the NIF at temperatures below those used in fusion experiments,[url=http://staging-www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7509/full/nature13526.html]Raymond Smith and colleagues[/url] have achieved a new experimental benchmark in the replication of conditions deep within giant planets. They describe properties of carbon compressed to an unprecedented density of 12 g cm-3. These results also provide some of the most direct experimental tests of quantum-statistical theories developed in the early days of quantum mechanics. [Cover: LLNL]# Y# t( R2 h2 G/ {
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