Two LANL laboratory astrophysics experiments
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Two laboratory experiments are described that have been built at Los Alamos (LANL) to gain access to a wide range of fundamental plasma physics issues germane to astro, space, and fusion plasmas. The overarching theme is magnetized plasma dynamics which includes significant currents, MHD forces and instabilities, magnetic field creation and annihilation, sheared flows and shocks. The Relaxation Scaling Experiment (RSX) creates current sheets and flux ropes that exhibit fully 3D dynamics, and can kink, bounce, merge and reconnect, shred, and reform in complicated ways. Recent movies from a large data set describe the 3D magnetic structure of a driven and dissipative single flux rope that spontaneously self-saturates a kink instability. Examples of a coherent shear flow dynamo driven by colliding flux ropes will also be shown. The Magnetized Shock Experiment (MSX) uses Field reversed configuration (FRC) experimental hardware that forms and ejects FRCs at 150km/sec. This is sufficient to drive a collision less magnetized shock when stagnated into a mirror stopping field region with Alfven Mach number MA=3 so that super critical shocks can be studied. We are building a plasmoid accelerator to drive Mach numbers MA >> 3 to access solar wind and more exotic astrophysical regimes. Unique features of this experiment include access to parallel, oblique and perpendicular shocks, shock region much larger than ion gyro radii and ion inertial length, room for turbulence, and large magnetic and fluid Reynolds numbers.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); US NASA
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1116693
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-14-20436; TRN: US1500369
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
KINK INSTABILITY
LANL
FIELD-REVERSED THETA PINCH DEVICES
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
SOLAR WIND
ANNIHILATION
PLASMA
ROPES
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
SHEAR
MAGNETIC FIELDS
ACCELERATORS
PLASMOIDS
COLLISIONS
RELAXATION
SCALING LAWS
SHEETS
TURBULENCE
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
SHOCK WAVES`
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
HELLIOSPHERIC PHYSICS
MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS
MAGNETIC FUSION ENERGY
RECONNECTION
DYNAMO
SHEAR FLOW
FLUX ROPE