We establish the work on white dwarf stars in the larger context of the experiments of the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties (WCAPP); these experiments are conducted at the plasma conditions found in the cosmos, without the need for scaling. We briefly summarize the results of these experiments to-date and their astrophysical and physical import, before focusing on the white dwarf experiments. Over 97% of stars either are, or will become, white dwarf stars, giving them broad relevance. We describe the astrophysical and physical problems associated with white dwarf photospheres, the plasma where the observed light arises. The astrophysical questions include the age of the universe, the age and history of star formation in our Galaxy’s varied morphological components and the evolution of stars. The compact nature of these ubiquitous stars means that the atomic physics is not well constrained even in the outermost layers. Further, it suggests that many important processes, including crystallization in dense Coulomb plasma, occur and have a significant effect on the evolution and structure of these stars and thus all their many applications.

我们在伍顿天体物理性质研究中心（WCAPP）的更大范围的实验中建立了白矮星的工作。这些实验是在宇宙中发现的等离子体条件下进行的，无需进行缩放。在着重于白矮星实验之前，我们简要总结了迄今为止这些实验的结果以及它们的天体物理和物理意义。超过97％的恒星是或将成为白矮星，这使它们具有广泛的相关性。我们描述了与白矮光球有关的天体物理问题，这是观察到的光所产生的等离子体。天体物理学的问题包括宇宙的年龄，银河系各种形态成分中恒星形成的年龄和历史以及恒星的演化。这些无处不在的恒星的紧凑性质意味着即使在最外层，原子物理学也没有受到很好的约束。此外，这表明发生了许多重要的过程，包括在密集的库仑等离子体中结晶，并且对这些恒星的演化和结构以及所有它们的许多应用具有重大影响。