Preface

Abstract

The Ninth International Conference on Inertial Fusion Science and Applications (IFSA) was held on September 20-25, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Seattle’s Eastside, Washington, U.S.A. The event was hosted by the University of California and was organized by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It brought together more than 370 participants from 16 countries.The goal, as for all previous IFSA Conferences, was to bring together scientists in the fields of inertial fusion science and high-energy-density physics, and their applications. Three hundred twenty seven papers were presented emphasizing the science of high-energy and high-intensity laser, pulsed-power, and particle-beam interactions with matter, the associated high-energy-density physics, and their application to fusion concepts. Results presented included theory, modeling, and experimental results from facilities worldwide.In recent years, significant advances have been made in high-energy-density science using lasers, Z-pinches, and particle beam systems with dramatic technical achievements in areas such as central-hot-spot ignition, fast and impulse ignition, material properties at extreme conditions, warm dense matter, particle acceleration and laser-plasma interactions. For the first time in the laboratory, x-ray driven ignition experiments, performed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the United States, have exhibited self-heating. In the month following the Conference, the first plasma experiments were performed at Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) in France, and ignition scale projects are under way in China and Russia. Other approaches, such as magnetic compression on the Z-machine at Sandia National Laboratories and direct drive experiments at the University of Rochester, have produced exciting new results which were reported on at the Conference.Second-generation petawatt short-pulse laser systems such as the highest-energy petawatt laser systems LFEX (FIREX) in Japan, OMEGA-EP in the United States, PETAL in France, and Vulcan PW in the United Kingdom, have allowed the study of novel approaches to producing and probing high-energy-density matter and exploring alternative ignition schemes. These scientific studies contribute to the physics understanding needed to develop inertial fusion energy as a commercial energy source and were also reported on at the Conference.Third-generation rep-rated and high-energy petawatt lasers are coming on line for strong field science studies and have opened up a new field of relativistic plasma physics. The extreme states achieved in these laser-plasma interactions are relevant to high-intensity x-ray applications, material processing, novel accelerators, and laboratory astrophysics.Recent activities and research in all these fields were discussed in 327 presentations, including three Keynote lectures, two Teller lectures, 21 plenary talks, 135 orals, and 166 posters. The proceedings collected in this volume underwent a rigorous peer-review process. The Editor is thankful to all the authors who agreed to act as referees on papers written by their fellow authors, and who worked both hard and diligently to complete this task in record time. We also thank the Technical Program Committee members who helped make this Ninth IFSA Conference possible.The American Nuclear Society Teller Award was bestowed during IFSA2015 on two key contributors to ICF science, Hiroshi Azechi and Jie Zhang. In addition, prizes were awarded to four students for their excellent presentations.On behalf of the various Committees, we extend our appreciation to everyone who helped make IFSA2015 a great success.