• A. Friedman, J.J. Barnard, D. A. Callahan, G.J. Caporaso, D.P. Grote, R.W. Lee, S.D. Nelson, M. Tabak
  LLNL, Livermore, California
• R.J. Briggs
  SAIC, Alamo, California
• C.M. Celata, A. Faltens, E. Henestroza, E. P. Lee, M. Leitner, B. G. Logan, G. Penn, L. R. Reginato, A. Sessler, J.W.  Staples, W. Waldron, J.S. Wurtele, S. Yu
  LBNL, Berkeley, California
• R.C. Davidson, L. Grisham, I. Kaganovich
  PPPL, Princeton, New Jersey
• C. L. Olson, T. Renk
  Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• D. Rose, C.H. Thoma, D.R. Welch
  ATK-MR, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF-VNL) is developing the intense ion beams needed to drive matter to the High Energy Density (HED) regimes required for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) and other applications. An interim goal is a facility for Warm Dense Matter (WDM) studies, wherein a target is heated volumetrically without being shocked, so that well-defined states of matter at 1 to 10 eV are generated within a diagnosable region. In the approach we are pursuing, low to medium mass ions with energies just above the Bragg peak are directed onto thin target "foils," which may in fact be foams or "steel wool" with mean densities 1% to 100% of solid. This approach complements that being pursued at GSI, wherein high-energy ion beams deposit a small fraction of their energy in a cylindrical target. We present the requirements for warm dense matter experiments, and describe suitable accelerator concepts, including novel broadband traveling wave pulse-line, drift-tube linac, RF, and single-gap approaches. We show how neutralized drift compression and final focus optics tolerant of large velocity spread can generate the necessarily compact focal spots in space and time.