Modeling of laser-generated radiative blast waves

We simulate experiments performed with the Falcon laser at Lawrence Livermo re National Laboratory to generate strong, cylindrically diverging blast wa ves of relevance to astrophysics. In particular, we are interested in produ cing and modeling radiative shocks. We compare numerical simulations with t he data and with an analytic approximation to blast-wave propagation with a radiative-loss term included. Our goal is to develop a laboratory setting for studying radiative shocks of relevance to supernova remnants, gamma-ray burst afterglows, and other high-energy astrophysics phenomena. We will sh ow that a good degree of agreement exists between the experimental data and the numerical simulations, demonstrating that it is indeed possible to gen erate radiative shocks in the laboratory using tabletop femtosecond lasers. In addition, we show how we can determine the energy-loss rate from the bl ast-wave evolution. This analytic met:hod is independent of the exact mecha nism of radiative cooling and is scalable to both the laboratory and astrop hysical radiative blast waves.