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Title: Collisionless shock experiments with lasers and observation of Weibel instabilities

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4920959· OSTI ID:1182658
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  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  3. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
  4. Univ. of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom)
  5. LULI, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France)
  6. Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, CA (United States)
  8. MIT (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  9. Osaka Univ., Osaka (Japan)
  10. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

Astrophysical collisionless shocks are common in the universe, occurring in supernova remnants, gamma ray bursts, and protostellar jets. They appear in colliding plasma flows when the mean free path for ion-ion collisions is much larger than the system size. It is believed that such shocks could be mediated via the electromagnetic Weibel instability in astrophysical environments without preexisting magnetic fields. Here, we present laboratory experiments using high-power lasers and investigate the dynamics of high-Mach-number collisionless shock formation in two interpenetrating plasma streams. Our recent proton-probe experiments on Omega show the characteristic filamentary structures of the Weibel instability that are electromagnetic in nature with an inferred magnetization level as high as ~1% These results imply that electromagnetic instabilities are significant in the interaction of astrophysical conditions.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0001857; AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1182658
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1228320
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 5; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 47 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (13)

Growth and propagation of self-generated magnetic dipole vortices in collisionless shocks produced by interpenetrating plasmas journal January 2018
Scaling laws for dynamical plasma phenomena journal October 2018
Observation of collisionless-to-collisional transition in colliding plasma jets with optical Thomson scattering journal January 2019
Characterizing filamentary magnetic structures in counter-streaming plasmas by Fourier analysis of proton images journal October 2019
MPRAD: A Monte Carlo and ray-tracing code for the proton radiography in high-energy-density plasma experiments journal December 2019
Developed turbulence and nonlinear amplification of magnetic fields in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas journal June 2015
Distinguishing and diagnosing the spontaneous electric and magnetic fields of Weibel instability through proton radiography journal December 2019
Probing thermal Weibel instability in optical-field-ionized plasmas using relativistic electron bunches journal January 2020
Machine learning applied to proton radiography of high-energy-density plasmas journal April 2017
Status of NIF laser and high power laser research at LLNL conference February 2017
Precursor Wave Emission Enhanced by Weibel Instability in Relativistic Shocks journal May 2018
Evolution of Three-dimensional Relativistic Ion Weibel Instability: Competition with Kink Instability journal June 2019
Characterizing filamentary magnetic structures in counter-streaming plasmas by Fourier analysis of proton images text January 2019