Structure and Dynamics of Colliding Plasma Jets
Name
Li-2013-Structure and dynamics.pdf
Size
1.84 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Ryutov, D.
Hu, S.
Amendt, P.
Park, H.
Remington, B.
Wilks, S.
Betti, R.
Froula, D. H.
Knauer, J.
Meyerhofer, D. D.
Date Issued
December 2013
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Li, C., D. Ryutov, S. Hu, M. Rosenberg, A. Zylstra, F. Séguin, J. Frenje, et al. “Structure and Dynamics of Colliding Plasma Jets.” Physical Review Letters 111, no. 23 (December 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Monoenergetic-proton radiographs of laser-generated, high-Mach-number plasma jets colliding at various angles shed light on the structures and dynamics of these collisions. The observations compare favorably with results from 2D hydrodynamic simulations of multistream plasma jets, and also with results from an analytic treatment of electron flow and magnetic field advection. In collisions of two noncollinear jets, the observed flow structure is similar to the analytic model’s prediction of a characteristic feature with a narrow structure pointing in one direction and a much thicker one pointing in the opposite direction. Spontaneous magnetic fields, largely azimuthal around the colliding jets and generated by the well-known ∇T[subscript e] × ∇n[subscript e] Biermann battery effect near the periphery of the laser spots, are demonstrated to be “frozen in” the plasma (due to high magnetic Reynolds number Re[subscript M] ~ 5 × 10[superscript 4]) and advected along the jet streamlines of the electron flow. These studies provide novel insight into the interactions and dynamics of colliding plasma jets.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.235003
