The Ninth International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications (IFSA 2015)

The Ninth International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications (IFSA 2015) will be held in Seattle, Washington on September 20 – 25, 2015. The goal of IFSA 2015 is to bring together scientists in the fields of inertial fusion science, high-energy-density physics, and their applications. Presented papers will be peer-reviewed, and the proceedings of the conference will be published. IFSA 2015 will emphasize 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 will include theory, modeling, and experimental results from facilities worldwide. IFSA 2015 is co-chaired by Bill Goldstein (USA), Hiroshi Azechi (Japan), and Patrick Mora (France). The Organizing Chairs are John Edwards (LLNL), Ryosuke Kodama (ILE) and Sylvie Jacquemot (LULI). The Technical Program Committee is co-chaired by Bruce Hammel (LLNL), Hiroyuki Shiraga (ILE) and Dimitri Batani (CELIA). 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, are beginning to exhibit self-heating. Operations are scheduled to begin soon at the Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) in France, and ignition scale projects are underway 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, are producing exciting new results. 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, allow 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. Third generation rep-rated and high energy petawatt lasers are coming on line for strong field science studies and are opening 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.