Creating White Dwarf Photospheres In The Laboratory

We present a preliminary report from the laboratory astrophysics experiments to create macroscopic (similar to 19 cm(3)) hydrogen-plasmas with white dwarf (WD) photospheric conditions (i.e., temperature, electron density). These experiments, performed at the Z Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratories, will serve as benchmarks for fundamental atomic line profile measurements in emission and absorption; they are targeted to address the discrepancy between theory and observation of WD photospheres - cooler photospheres in particular.