High energy density in matter produced by heavy ion beams. Annual report 1987

Research activities presented in this annual report were carried out in 1987 in the framework of the government-funded program 'High Energy Density in Matter Produced by Heavy Ion Beams'. It addresses fundamental problems of the generation and investigation of hot dense matter. Its initial motivation and its ultimate goal is the question whether inertial confinement can be achieved by intense heavy ion beams. The new accelerator facility SIS/ESR now under construction at GSI will provide an excellent potential for research in this field. The construction work at the new validity is on schedule. The building construction is near completion and the SIS accelerator will have its first beam at the beginning of next year. First experiments at lower intensity will start in summer 1989 and the full program will run after the cooler and storage ring ESR has got operational. Accordingly, the planning and the preparation of the high energy density experiments at this unique facility was an essential part of the activities last year. In this funding period emphasis was given to the experimental activities at the existing accelerator. In addition to a number of accelerator-oriented and instrumental developments, an experiment on beam-plasma interaction had first exciting results, a significant increase of the stopping power for heavy ions in plasma was measured. Other important activities were the investigation of dielectronic recombination of highly charged ions, spectroscopic investigations aiming at the pumping of short wavelength lasers by heavy ion beams and a crossed beam experiment for the determination of Bi+ + Bi+ ionization cross sections. As in previous years theoretical work an space-charge dominated beam dynamics as well as on hydrodynamics of dense plasmas, radiation transport and beam plasma interaction was continued, thus providing a basis for the future experiments. (orig.)