PPPS-2013: Direct simulation of laser-HED plasma interaction in extended MHD

Summary form only given. The interaction of intense high-frequency EM radiation with high energy density (HED) Aluminum plasma is studied using the extended MHD (XMHD) code PERSEUS¹. The PERSEUS code solves the XMHD equations using a relaxation method that allows time steps much larger than the electron plasma period and is only restricted by the speed of light transit time across a computational cell. This allows us to study HED plasmas in the MHD regime, but still take into account the effects of the Hall, electron pressure, and electron inertial terms. The purpose of this study is to understand the differences between the MHD and XMHD models for EM-plasma interaction in the HED regime. We consider two approaches that are in principle equivalent, but in practice are very different.