Laboratory Astrophysics Experiments with Magnetically Driven Plasma Jets

15th International Congress on Plasma Physics; 13th Latin American Workshop on Plasma Physics

Suzuki-Vidal, F.^1 ; Lebedev, S.V.^1 ; Ciardi, A.^2 ; Bland, S.N.^1 ; Hall, G.N.^1 ; Swadling, G.^1 ; Harvey-Thompson, A.J.^1 ; Burdiak, G.^1 ; Grouchy, P De^1 ; Chittenden, J.P.^1 ; Bocchi, M.^1 ; Bott, S.C.^3 ; Frank, A.^4

Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom^1

Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France^2

Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States^3

University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, NY, United States^4

关键词: Astrophysical flows;    Astrophysical jets;    Cooling parameters;    Laboratory astrophysics;    Magnetic cavity;    Magpie generator;    Periodic formation;    Toroidal magnetic fields;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/511/1/012050/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/511/1/012050

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

We present experimental results on the formation of supersonic, radiatively cooled jets driven by the toroidal magnetic field generated by the 1.5 MA, 250 ns current from the MAGPIE generator. The morphology of the jet produced in the experiments is relevant to astrophysical jet scenarios in which the jet on the axis of a magnetic cavity expanding into an ambient medium is collimated by a toroidal magnetic field. The jets in our experiments have similar Mach number, plasma beta and cooling parameter to those in protostellar jets and additionally the Reynolds, magnetic Reynolds and Peclet numbers are much larger than unity, allowing the experiments to be scaled to astrophysical flows. The experimental configuration generates episodic magnetic cavities, suggesting that periodic formation of jets in astrophysical situations could be responsible for some of the variability observed in astrophysical jets. The dynamics of the formation of laboratory jets are presented, together with new results including preliminary measurements of magnetic, kinetic and Poynting energy of the outflows. In addition first estimates of jet temperature and trapped toroidal magnetic field are presented and discussed.