Brandon Michael Medina

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Journal article Open access

Improving indirect-drive ablator performance through pulse shaping and material selection in double shell implosions

by Eric Nicholas Loomis, Brandon Michael Medina, Sasikumar Palaniyappan, Alexander Martin Rasmus, Harry F. III Robey, Irina Sagert, Joshua Paul Sauppe and Chun-Shang Wong

First online publication 03/25/2026

Physics of Plasmas, 3, 032703, 33

Journal article Open access

Modeling and verification of dynamic field ionization for laser-target interactions

by Brandon Michael Medina, Scott Vernon Luedtke, Lin Yin and Brian James Albright

First online publication 09/23/2025

Computer Physics Communications, 318, 109875

Journal article Open access

Characterization of laser-accelerated proton beams from a 0.5 kJ sub-picosecond laser for radiography applications

by Chengkun Huang, Mariana Alvarado Alvarez, Steven H. Batha, David Paul Broughton, Andrea Favalli, Elizabeth Grace, Metodi Iliev, Ann Sylvia Junghans, D. A. Mariscal and Brandon Michael Medina ... (19 authors)

First online publication 03/19/2025

Physics of Plasmas, 32, 3, 033107

Journal article Open access

Advances in laser-based bremsstrahlung x-ray sources. II. Laser pulse propagation and guiding in nonuniform plasma media in the presence of self-focusing

by Brian James Albright, Lin Yin, Sasikumar Palaniyappan, Alemayehu S. Bogale, Juan Carlos Fernandez, Alejandro Luis Figueroa, Rebecca Juliet Fitzgarrald, Donald Cort Gautier, Chengkun Huang and James F. Hunter ... (18 authors)

First online publication 12/04/2024

Physics of Plasmas, 31, 12, 123102

Journal article Open access

Advances in laser-based bremsstrahlung x-ray sources. I. Optimizing laser-accelerated electrons

by Lin Yin, Scott Vernon Luedtke, David James Stark, Chengkun Huang, Brandon Michael Medina, Alexander George Seaton, Alemayehu S. Bogale, Joseph Robert Strehlow, Sasikumar Palaniyappan and La Moyne Tyler Mix ... (18 authors)

First online publication 12/04/2024

Physics of Plasmas, 31, 12

Journal article Open access Peer reviewed

Distance Estimate Method for Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars Using Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions

by Rajorshi Bhattacharya, Brandon M. Medina, Ylva M. Pihlstroem, Lorant O. Sjouwerman, Megan O. Lewis, Raghvendra Sahai, Michael C. Stroh, Luis Henry Quiroga-Nunez, Mark J. Claussen and Huib Jan van Langevelde ... (12 authors)

Published 07/01/2024

The Astrophysical journal, 969, 2, 109

We present a method to estimate distances to asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Galaxy, using spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the near- and mid-infrared. By assuming that a given set of source properties (initial mass, stellar temperature, composition, and evolutionary stage) will provide a typical SED shape and brightness, sources are color matched to a distance-calibrated template and thereafter scaled to extract the distance. The method is tested by comparing the distances obtained to those estimated from very long baseline interferometry or Gaia parallax measurements, yielding a strong correlation in both cases. Additional templates are formed by constructing a source sample likely to be close to the Galactic center, and thus with a common, typical distance for calibration of the templates. These first results provide statistical distance estimates to a set of almost 15,000 Milky Way AGB stars belonging to the Bulge Asymmetries and Dynamical Evolution (BAaDE) survey, with typical distance errors of +/- 35%. With these statistical distances, a map of the intermediate-age population of stars traced by AGBs is formed, and a clear bar structure can be discerned, consistent with the previously reported inclination angle of 30 degrees to the GC-Sun direction vector. These results motivate deeper studies of the AGB population to tease out the intermediate-age stellar distribution throughout the Galaxy, as well as determining statistical properties of the AGB population luminosity and mass-loss-rate distributions.

Journal article Open access Peer reviewed

Verification and benchmarking relativistic electron beam transport through a background gas

by Brandon M. Medina, Pierre Grua, Keith L. Cartwright, David Hebert, Nicolas Szalek, Clement Caizergues, Israel Owens, Elaine L. Rhoades, Jacques Gardelle and Christopher H. Moore

Published 07/2023

Computer Physics Communications, 288, 108721

Brandon Michael Medina

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Output list