High-Mach number, laser-driven magnetized collisionless shocks
- Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States)
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical systems, and the class of supercritical shocks is of particular importance due to their role in accelerating particles to high energies. While these shocks have been traditionally studied by spacecraft and remote sensing observations, laboratory experiments can provide reproducible and multi-dimensional datasets that provide complementary understanding of the underlying microphysics. We present experiments undertaken on the OMEGA and OMEGA EP laser facilities that show the formation and evolution of high-Mach number collisionless shocks created through the interaction of a laser-driven magnetic piston and magnetized ambient plasma. Through time-resolved, 2-D imaging we observe large density and magnetic compressions that propagate at super-Alfvenic speeds and that occur over ion kinetic length scales. Electron density and temperature of the initial ambient plasma are characterized using optical Thomson scattering. Measurements of the piston laser-plasma are modeled with 2-D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, which are used to initialize 2-D particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction between the piston and ambient plasmas. The numerical results show the formation of collisionless shocks, including the separate dynamics of the carbon and hydrogen ions that constitute the ambient plasma and their effect on the shock structure. Furthermore, the simulations also show the shock separating from the piston, which we observe in the data at late experimental times.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0002731; AC05-00OR22725; SC00016249; SC0008655
- OSTI ID:
- 1411868
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1412000
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 12; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Kinetic simulation of magnetic field generation and collisionless shock formation in expanding laboratory plasmas
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journal | October 2018 |
Full particle-in-cell simulation of the interaction between two plasmas for laboratory experiments on the generation of magnetized collisionless shocks with high-power lasers
|
journal | March 2019 |
Kinetic simulation of magnetic field generation and collisionless shock formation in expanding laboratory plasmas | text | January 2017 |
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