Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet
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Scaled laboratory.pdf
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1.75 MB
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Author(s)
Tzeferacos, P.
Lamb, D.
Gregori, G.
Norreys, P. A.
Follett, R. K.
Froula, D. H.
Koenig, M.
Amendt, P. A.
Park, H. S.
Remington, B. A.
Date Issued
October 2016
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Li, C. K. et al. “Scaled Laboratory Experiments Explain the Kink Behaviour of the Crab Nebula Jet.” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 13081.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The remarkable discovery by the Chandra X-ray observatory that the Crab nebula’s jet periodically changes direction provides a challenge to our understanding of astrophysical jet dynamics. It has been suggested that this phenomenon may be the consequence of magnetic fields and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, but experimental demonstration in a controlled laboratory environment has remained elusive. Here we report experiments that use high-power lasers to create a plasma jet that can be directly compared with the Crab jet through well-defined physical scaling laws. The jet generates its own embedded toroidal magnetic fields; as it moves, plasma instabilities result in multiple deflections of the
propagation direction, mimicking the kink behaviour of the Crab jet. The experiment is modelled with three-dimensional numerical simulations that show exactly how the instability develops and results in changes of direction of the jet.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13081
