Experimental observations of detached bow shock formation in the interaction of a laser-produced plasma with a magnetized obstacle
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics; Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
- Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Reading (United Kingdom)
The magnetic field produced by planets with active dynamos, like the Earth, can exert sufficient pressure to oppose supersonic stellar wind plasmas, leading to the formation of a standing bow shock upstream of the magnetopause, or pressure-balance surface. Scaled laboratory experiments studying the interaction of an inflowing solar wind analog with a strong, external magnetic field are a promising new way to study magnetospheric physics and to complement existing models, although reaching regimes favorable for magnetized shock formation is experimentally challenging. This paper presents experimental evidence of the formation of a magnetized bow shock in the interaction of a supersonic, super-Alfvenic plasma with a strongly magnetized obstacle at the OMEGA laser facility. The solar wind analog is generated by the collision and subsequent expansion of two counterpropagating, laser-driven plasma plumes. The magnetized obstacle is a thin wire, driven with strong electrical currents. Hydrodynamic simulations using the FLASH code predict that the colliding plasma source meets the criteria for bow shock formation. Spatially resolved, optical Thomson scattering measures the electron number density, and optical emission lines provide a measurement of the plasma temperature, from which we infer the presence of a fast magnetosonic shock far upstream of the obstacle. Proton images provide a measure of large-scale features in the magnetic field topology, and reconstructed path-integrated magnetic field maps from these images suggest the formation of a bow shock upstream of the wire and as a transient magnetopause. Finally, we compare features in the reconstructed fields to two-dimensional MHD simulations of the system.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; NA0003869; NA0002956; NA0002722; NA0002719; NA0001944; NA0003856; PF3-140111; NAS8-03060; 57789; 536203; B632670
- OSTI ID:
- 1856167
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1839104; OSTI ID: 1983622
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-21-25335; TRN: US2305086
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 29, Issue 1; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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