A laboratory model for the Parker spiral and magnetized stellar winds

Peterson, Ethan E.; Endrizzi, Douglass A.; Beidler, Matthew; Bunkers, Kyle J.; Clark, Michael; Egedal, Jan; Flanagan, Ken; McCollam, Karsten J.; Milhone, Jason; Olson, Joseph; Sovinec, Carl R.; Waleffe, Roger; Wallace, John; Forest, Cary B.

doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0592-7

Title: A laboratory model for the Parker spiral and magnetized stellar winds

Journal Article · 29 July 2019 · Nature Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0592-7 · OSTI ID:1579658

^[1];

^[1]; Beidler, Matthew ^[2];

^[1]; Clark, Michael ^[1]; Egedal, Jan ^[1];

^[1]; McCollam, Karsten J. ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]; Wallace, John ^[1]; Forest, Cary B. ^[1]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Many rotating stars have magnetic fields that interact with the winds they produce. The Sun is no exception. The interaction between the Sun’s magnetic field and the solar wind gives rise to the heliospheric magnetic field – a spiraling magnetic structure, known as the Parker Spiral, which pervades the solar system. This magnetic field is significant for governing plasma processes that source the solar wind. In this work, we report the creation of a laboratory model of the Parker spiral system based on a rapidly-rotating plasma magnetosphere and the measurement of its global structure and dynamic behaviour. This laboratory system exhibits regions where the plasma flows evolve similarly to many magnetized stellar winds. We observe the advection of magnetic field into an Archimedean spiral and the ejection of quasi-periodic plasma blobs into the stellar outflow, which mimics the observed plasmoids that fuel the slow solar wind. This process involves magnetic reconnection and can be modelled numerically by the inclusion of two-fluid effects in the simulation. The Parker spiral system mirrored in the laboratory can be used for studying solar wind dynamics in complementary fashion to conventional space missions such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018266

OSTI ID:: 1579658

Journal Information:: Nature Physics, Vol. 15, Issue 10; ISSN 1745-2473

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 9 works

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