Milky Way Disc and Halo
Ralph Schoenrich (OSU/CCAPP/Astronomy)
I will give a short outline of analytic disc modelling and the question of the Galactic thick disc. Further I will show how this modelling affects our knowledge of Galactic parameters and the Solar motion. I will further discuss distance estimates as well as estimators for Galactic rotation and implications for understanding the structure of the Galactic halo.
Bringing the Stars to Earth: Laboratory Astrophysics at OSU
Chris Orban (OSU/Physics)
Advances in laser technology and other technical achievements have made plasmas at stellar densities and temperatures directly accessible in the lab for the first time, without any appeal to scaling arguments. I will describe several on-going and planned experiments in this category that researchers at OSU are contributing to. In particular, laser experiments at a number of different facilities can potentially resolve discrepancies that have emerged from Iron opacity measurements conducted at the Sandia Z pinch, which may ultimately help resolve long-standing debates over solar abundances. I will end with a brief discussion of the wide variety of laboratory astrophysics experiments being planned for the National Ignition Facility, currently the largest and most energetic laser platform in the world.
