skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Scaling laws for dynamical plasma phenomena

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5042254· OSTI ID:1482879

A scaling and similarity technique is a useful tool for developing and testing reduced models of complex phenomena, including plasma phenomena. Similarity and scaling arguments will be applied to highly dynamical systems where the plasma is evolving from some initial to some final state, which may differ dramatically from each other in size and plasma parameters. A question then arises whether, in order to better understand the behavior of one such system, is it possible to create another system, possibly much smaller (or larger) than the original one, but whose evolution would accurately replicate that of the original one, from its initial to its final state. This would allow a researcher, by an experimental study of this second system, to make confident predictions about the behavior of the first one (which may be otherwise inaccessible, as is the case of some astrophysical objects, or too expensive and hard to diagnose, as in the case of fusion applications of pulsed plasma systems, or for other reasons). The scaling and similarity techniques for dynamical plasma systems will be presented as a set of case studies of problems from various domains of plasma physics, including collisional and collisionless plasmas. Finally, among the results discussed are similar for MHD systems with an emphasis on high-energy-density laboratory astrophysics, interference between collisionless and collisional phenomena in the context of shock physics, and similarity for liner-imploded plasmas.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1482879
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1477915
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-751145; 936977
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 10; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (94)

The Origin of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays journal September 1984
FLASH: An Adaptive Mesh Hydrodynamics Code for Modeling Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes journal November 2000
Rayleigh–Taylor and Richtmyer–Meshkov instability induced flow, turbulence, and mixing. I journal December 2017
The design of laboratory experiments to produce collisionless shocks of cosmic relevance journal November 2000
Rayleigh–Taylor and Richtmyer–Meshkov instability induced flow, turbulence, and mixing. II journal December 2017
Spontaneously Growing Transverse Waves in a Plasma Due to an Anisotropic Velocity Distribution journal February 1959
Mechanism for Instability of Transverse Plasma Waves journal January 1959
Scalings for ultrarelativistic laser plasmas and quasimonoenergetic electrons journal April 2005
Experimental astrophysics with high power lasers and Z pinches journal August 2006
Magneto-Inertial Fusion journal November 2015
Submegajoule Liner Implosion of a Closed Field Line Configuration journal December 1996
Criteria for Scaled Laboratory Simulations of Astrophysical MHD Phenomena journal April 2000
Large, highly organized radio structures near the galactic centre journal August 1984
How high energy fluxes may affect Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth in young supernova remnants journal April 2018
Laser-Driven Shock Acceleration of Monoenergetic Ion Beams journal November 2012
Production of radiatively cooled hypersonic plasma jets and links to astrophysical jets journal November 2005
Nonrelativistic Collisionless Shocks in Unmagnetized Electron-Ion Plasmas journal June 2008
Laser-Driven Magnetic-Flux Compression in High-Energy-Density Plasmas journal November 2009
Simulating radiative shocks with the CRASH laser package journal March 2013
Transition from Collisional to Collisionless Regimes in Interpenetrating Plasma Flows on the National Ignition Facility journal May 2017
Generation of scaled protogalactic seed magnetic fields in laser-produced shock waves journal January 2012
Quasilinear relaxation of a beam with power law injected electrons propagating through solar corona journal May 2015
Scaling laws for plasma confinement journal October 1977
Experimental Demonstration of Fusion-Relevant Conditions in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion journal October 2014
Magnetohydrodynamic scaling: From astrophysics to the laboratory journal May 2001
Exploring magnetized liner inertial fusion with a semi-analytic model journal January 2016
On the Structure of Relativistic Collisionless Shocks in Electron-Ion Plasmas journal December 2007
Modeling Astrophysical Phenomena in the Laboratory with Intense Lasers journal May 1999
Spike morphology in blast-wave-driven instability experiments journal May 2010
Characterizing counter-streaming interpenetrating plasmas relevant to astrophysical collisionless shocks journal May 2012
Simulating the magnetized liner inertial fusion plasma confinement with smaller-scale experiments journal June 2012
Magnetic field advection in two interpenetrating plasma streams journal March 2013
Scaling magnetized liner inertial fusion on Z and future pulsed-power accelerators journal February 2016
Overview of future directions in high energy-density and high-field science using ultra-intense lasers journal July 2004
FLUID DYNAMICS OF STELLAR JETS IN REAL TIME: THIRD EPOCH HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES OF HH 1, HH 34, AND HH 47 journal July 2011
Magnetized Target Fusion: An Overview journal May 1995
Collisional effects in the ion Weibel instability for two counter-propagating plasma streams journal March 2014
Similarity laws for collisionless interaction of superstrong electromagnetic fields with a plasma journal February 2006
Critical Magnetic Prandtl Number for Small-Scale Dynamo journal February 2004
Laser Electron Accelerator journal July 1979
A “perfect” hydrodynamic similarity and effect of the Reynolds number on the global scale motion journal July 2003
Particle beams in the solar atmosphere: General overview journal December 1990
Linear and Nonlinear Waves book June 1999
Pulsed-power-driven cylindrical liner implosions of laser preheated fuel magnetized with an axial field journal May 2010
Intra-jet shocks in two counter-streaming, weakly collisional plasma jets journal July 2012
Ignition and high gain with ultrapowerful lasers journal May 1994
On Validating an Astrophysical Simulation Code journal November 2002
Zettawatt-exawatt lasers and their applications in ultrastrong-field physics journal March 2002
Dynamics of electron beams in the solar corona plasma with density fluctuations journal August 2001
An extended study of the ignition design space of magnetized target fusion journal March 2017
Generation of a Magnetic Field by Dynamo Action in a Turbulent Flow of Liquid Sodium journal January 2007
Magnetic dynamos in the lab journal July 2011
Similarity Criteria for the Laboratory Simulation of Supernova Hydrodynamics journal June 1999
Scaling laws for radiating fluids: the pillar of laboratory astrophysics journal January 2009
Visualizing electromagnetic fields in laser-produced counter-streaming plasma experiments for collisionless shock laboratory astrophysics journal May 2013
Collisionless shock experiments with lasers and observation of Weibel instabilitiesa) journal May 2015
The Refurbished Z Facility: Capabilities and Recent Experiments journal June 2009
Design Considerations for Unmagnetized Collisionless-Shock Measurements in Homologous Flows journal April 2012
Physics of wire array Z-pinch implosions: experiments at Imperial College journal April 2005
Studying astrophysical collisionless shocks with counterstreaming plasmas from high power lasers journal March 2012
Solar type III radio burst time characteristics at LOFAR frequencies and the implications for electron beam transport journal June 2018
Basic scalings for collisionless-shock experiments in a plasma without pre-imposed magnetic field journal September 2012
Observation of magnetic field generation via the Weibel instability in interpenetrating plasma flows journal January 2015
A comparative study of the filamentation and Weibel instabilities and their cumulative effect. I. Non-relativistic theory journal February 2009
Observation of energetic protons trapped in laboratory magnetic-tower jets journal December 2013
Ultrahigh‐Intensity Lasers: Physics of the Extreme on a Tabletop journal January 1998
Particle and heat transport in a dense wall-confined MTF plasma (theory and simulations) journal August 2003
Poynting Jets from Accretion Disks journal June 2002
Rayleigh-Taylor mixing in supernova experiments journal October 2015
Experimental Observation of Plasma Wake-Field Acceleration journal July 1988
Verification and validation for magnetic fusion journal May 2010
Generation of Magnetic Fields in the Relativistic Shock of Gamma‐Ray Burst Sources journal December 1999
Filamentation Instability of Counterstreaming Laser-Driven Plasmas journal November 2013
Astrophysical Radiation Dynamics: The Prospects for Scaling journal December 2006
Nonlinear physics of laser-irradiated microclusters journal May 2005
Similarity rules in plasma physics journal April 1971
Observation of a Turbulence-Induced Large Scale Magnetic Field journal February 2006
The basis for cosmic ray feedback: Written on the wind journal May 2017
The bubble regime of laser–plasma acceleration: monoenergetic electrons and the scalability journal November 2004
Nonlinear Development of Electromagnetic Instabilities in Anisotropic Plasmas journal January 1972
Discrete symmetries in axisymmetric toroidal plasma confinement journal May 2001
A review of solar type III radio bursts journal July 2014
Similarity rules in plasma physics journal January 1971
Linear and Nonlinear Waves journal November 1975
Similarity, Self-Similarity and Intermediate Asymptotics journal September 1980
Poynting jets from accretion disks conference January 2001
Similarity, self-similarity, and intermediate asymptotics journal December 1981
Laser-driven shock acceleration of monoenergetic ion beams text January 2012
Exploring magnetized liner inertial fusion with a semi-analytic model text January 2015
Solar type III radio burst time characteristics at LOFAR frequencies and the implications for electron beam transport text January 2018
Critical Magnetic Prandtl Number for Small-Scale Dynamo text January 2003
The Bubble regime of laser-plasma acceleration: monoenergetic electrons and the scalability text January 2004
Scalings for ultra-relativistic laser plasmas and monoenergetic electrons text January 2004
Observation of a Turbulence-Induced Large Scale Magnetic Field text January 2005

Cited By (3)

Kinetic effects on neutron generation in moderately collisional interpenetrating plasma flows journal January 2019
Turbulent mixing and transition criteria of flows induced by hydrodynamic instabilities journal August 2019
Transition of low-temperature plasma similarity laws from low to high ionization degree regimes journal September 2019

Figures / Tables (8)


Similar Records

Collisional and collisionless shocks
Journal Article · Tue Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion · OSTI ID:1482879

Inductively Driven, 3D Liner Compression of a Magnetized Plasma to Megabar Energy Densities
Technical Report · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2015 · OSTI ID:1482879

Generalized fluid theory including non-Maxwellian kinetic effects
Journal Article · Wed Mar 29 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Plasma Physics · OSTI ID:1482879