Under certain conditions an intense kinetic plasma jet is observed to emerge from the apex of laboratory simulations of coronal plasma loops. Analytic and numerical models show that these jets result from a particle orbit instability in a helical magnetic field whereby magnetic forces radially eject rather than confine ions with sufficiently large counter-current axial velocity.
THEMIS multi-point observation of the plasma and magnetic fields, conducted simultaneously in the dayside magnetosheath and magnetosphere, were used to collect 646 large-scale magnetosheath plasma jets interacting with the magnetopause. The jets were identified as dense and fast streams of the magnetosheath plasma whose energy density is higher than that of the upstream solar wind. The jet interaction with the magnetopause was revealed from sudden inward motion of the magnetopause and an enhancement in the geomagnetic field. The penetration was determined as appearance of the magnetosheath pla…
Idealized merging argon plasma jets are simulated in 2D using both gas dynamic and MHD models. Results indicate that peak pressures of several hundred kilobar can be achieved for high Mach number jets. Including a simple optically thin Brehmstrahlung radiation model and plasma targets shows that extremely high densities and magnetic fields can be achieved during jet merging on the order of ~1000 times the initial density/field. Further investigations should include detailed ionization processes and more accurate radiation modeling to properly capture the radiation transport and subsequent targ…
We present results from experiments on the head-on merging of two supersonic plasma jets in an initially collisionless regime for the counter-streaming ions. The plasma jets are of either an argon/impurity or hydrogen/impurity mixture and are produced by pulsed-power-driven railguns. Based on time- and space-resolved fast-imaging, multi-chord interferometry, and survey-spectroscopy measurements of the overlapping region between the merging jets, we observe that the jets initially interpenetrate, consistent with calculated inter-jet ion collision lengths, which are long. As the jets interpenetr…
Intensity bursts in ultraviolet (UV) to X-ray wavelengths and plasma jets are typical signatures of magnetic reconnection and the associated impulsive heating of the solar atmospheric plasma. To gain new insights into the process, high-cadence observations are required to capture the rapid response of plasma to magnetic reconnection as well as the highly dynamic evolution of jets. Here, we report the first 2 s cadence extreme-UV observations recorded by the 174 Å High Resolution Imager of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager on board the Solar Orbiter mission. These observations, covering a quiet-Su…
In this experiment, we measure ion temperature evolution of collisional plasma shocks and colliding supersonic plasma flows across a range of species (Ar, Kr, Xe, N), Mach numbers, and collisionalities. Shocks are formed via the collision of discrete plasma jets relevant to plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF). We observe nearly classical ion shock heating and ion-electron equilibration, with peak temperatures attained consistent with collisional shock heating. We also observe cases where this heating occurs in a smooth merged structure with reduced density gradients due to signif…
A connection between kinetic processes and intermittent turbulence is observed in the solar wind plasma using measurements from the Wind spacecraft at 1 AU. In particular, kinetic effects such as temperature anisotropy and plasma heating are concentrated near coherent structures, such as current sheets, which are non-uniformly distributed in space. Furthermore, these coherent structures are preferentially found in plasma unstable to the mirror and firehose instabilities. The inhomogeneous heating in these regions, which is present in both the magnetic field parallel and perpendicular temperatu…
Using a 1-MA, 100ns-rise-time pulsed power generator, radial foil configurations can produce strongly collimated plasma jets. The resulting jets have electron densities on the order of 10^20 cm^-3, temperatures above 50 eV and plasma velocities on the order of 100 km/s, giving Reynolds numbers of the order of 10^3, magnetic Reynolds and Péclet numbers on the order of 1. While Hall physics does not dominate jet dynamics due to the large particle density and flow inside, it strongly impacts flows in the jet periphery where plasma density is low. As a result, Hall physics affects indirectly the g…
We report experimental results on merging of hypersonic plasma jets, which is the fundamental building block for forming spherically imploding plasma liners as a potential standoff compression driver for mangeto-inertial fusion. Jets are formed and launched by contoured-gap coaxial plasma guns mounted at the six spherical chamber. First, from experiments with two and three merging jets of four different species (N, Ar, Kr, Xe), we show that (1) density spatial non-uniformities can be large (with electron-density jumps ranging from 2.9 for N to 6.6 for Xe) when shocks form upon jet merging, but…
Three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations have been performed using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in order to study the effects of discrete jets on the processes of plasma liner formation, implosion on vacuum, and expansion. The pressure history of the inner portion of the liner was qualitatively and quantitatively similar from peak compression through the complete stagnation of the liner among simulation results from two one dimensional radiationhydrodynamic codes, 3D SPH with a uniform liner, and 3D SPH with 30 discrete plasma jets. Two dimensional slices of the pressure show that t…
This work presents scaling relations for the peak thermal pressure and stagnation time (over which peak pressure is sustained) for an imploding spherical plasma liner formed by an array of merging plasma jets. Results were derived from three-dimensional (3D) ideal hydrodynamic simulation results obtained using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code SPHC. The 3D results were compared to equivalent one-dimensional (1D) simulation results. It is found that peak thermal pressure scales linearly with the number of jets and initial jet density and Mach number, quadratically with initial jet radius…
Cross-helicity dominated distributed chaos (CHDC) for magnetohydrodynamic (large-scale) and kinetic (small-scale) ranges of space plasmas has been studied using results of direct numerical simulations and of measurements made in the Earth's magnetosheath and in free solar wind by the instruments onboard of the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission and CLUSTER spacecrafts. Existence of two generic types of transition from the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) to kinetic range has been shown: 1) from the Kolmogorov-like (scaling) MHD turbulence to the kinetic CHDC and 2) from the magnetohydrodynamic CHDC to…
We study the effects of plasma \b{eta} (ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure) on the evolution of kinetic plasma turbulence using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of decaying turbulence. We find that the plasma \b{eta} systematically affects spectra, measures of intermittency, decay rates of turbulence fluctuations, and partitioning over different channels of energy exchange More specifically, an increase in plasma \b{eta} leads to greater total heating, with proton heating preferentially more than electrons. Implications for achieving magnetosheath like temperature ratios a…
Oblique incidence of a $p$-polarized laser beam on a fully ionized plasma with a low density plasma corona is investigated numerically by Particle-In-Cell and Vlasov simulations in two dimensions. A single narrow self-focused current jet of energetic electrons is observed to be projected into the corona nearly normal to the target. Magnetic fields enhance the penetration depth of the electrons into the corona. A scaling law for the angle of the ejected electrons with incident laser intensity is given.
We present 3D-MHD AMR simulations of Poynting flux dominated (PFD) jets formed by injection of magnetic energy. We compare their evolution with a hydrodynamic jet which is formed by injecting kinetic energy with the same energy flux than the PFD jets. We predict characteristic emission distributions for each of these jets. Current-driven perturbations in PFD jets are amplified by both cooling and rotation for the regimes studied: Shocks and thermal pressure support are weakened by cooling, making the jets more susceptible to kinking. Rotation amplifies the toroidal magnetic field which also ex…
We present spatially resolved measurements characterizing the stagnation layer between two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets. Intra-jet collisionality is very high ($λ_{ii} \ll 1$mm), but the inter-jet ion-ion mean free paths are on the same order as the stagnation layer thickness (a few cm). Fast-framing camera images show a double-peaked emission profile transverse to the stagnation layer, with the central emission dip consistent with a density dip observed in the interferometer data. We demonstrate that our observations are consistent with collisional oblique shocks.
We describe a laboratory plasma physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory that uses two merging supersonic plasma jets formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven rail guns. The jets can be formed using any atomic species or mixture available in a compressed-gas bottle and have the following nominal initial parameters at the railgun nozzle exit: $n_e\approx n_i \sim 10^{16}$ cm$^{-3}$, $T_e \approx T_i \approx 1.4$ eV, $V_{\rm jet}\approx 30$-100 km/s, mean charge $\bar{Z}\approx 1$, sonic Mach number $M_s\equiv V_{\rm jet}/C_s>10$, jet diameter $=5$ cm, and jet length $\approx 20$ c…
We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density $\sim 10^{14}$ cm$^{-3}$, electron temperature $\approx 1.4$ eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity $\approx 40$ km/s just prior to merging. The jet merging produces a few-cm-thick stagnation layer, as observed in both fast-framing camera images and multi-chord interferometer data, consistent with collisional shock formation [E. C. Merritt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\b…
We report experimental results on the parameters, structure, and evolution of high-Mach-number (M) argon plasma jets formed and launched by a pulsed-power-driven railgun. The nominal initial average jet parameters in the data set analyzed are density \approx 2 x 10^(16) cm^(-3), electron temperature \approx 1.4 eV, velocity \approx 30 km/s, M \approx 14, ionization fraction \approx 0.96, diameter \approx 5 cm, and length \approx 20 cm. These values approach the range needed by the Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX), which is designed to use merging plasma jets to form imploding spherical plasma lin…
We review the plasma phenomenology in the astrophysical sources which show appreciable radio emissions, namely Radio-Jets from Pulsars, Microquasars, Quasars and Radio-Active Galaxies. A description of their basic features is presented, then we discuss in some details the links between their morphology and the mechanisms that lead to the different radio-emissions, investigating especially the role played by the plasma configurations surrounding compact objects (Neutron Stars, Black Holes). For the sake of completeness, we briefly mention observational techniques and detectors, whose structure …
Space and time resolved concentrations of helium metastable atoms in an atmospheric pressure radio-frequency micro-plasma jet were measured using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. Spatial profiles as well as lifetime measurements show significant influences of air entering the discharge from the front nozzle and of impurities originating from the gas supply system. Quenching of metastables was used to deduce quantitative concentrations of intruding impurities. The impurity profile along the jet axis was determined from optical emission spectroscopy as well as their dependance on the…
An experimental investigation comparing the properties of plasma jets in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configurations using a powered electrode with and without a dielectric barrier, while keeping a second dielectric barrier over the grounded electrode, is reported in this work. For this purpose, two different power sources were used to produce the plasma jets, with one of them producing a pulsed high-voltage (HV) output and the other one producing a pulse-like HV output, which consists of a damped sine HV waveform. Measurements of plasma parameters were performed for both configurations …
The generation of astrophysically relevant jets, from magnetically collimated, laser-produced plasmas, is investigated through three-dimensional, magneto-hydrodynamic simulations. We show that for laser intensities I ~ 10^12 - 10^14 W/cm^2, a magnetic field in excess of ~ 0.1 MG, can collimate the plasma plume into a prolate cavity bounded by a shock envelope with a standing conical shock at its tip, which re-collimates the flow into a super magneto-sonic jet beam. This mechanism is equivalent to astrophysical models of hydrodynamic inertial collimation, where an isotropic wind is focused into…
The interaction of supersonic laser-generated plasma jets with a secondary gas target was studied experimentally. The plasma parameters of the jet, and the resulting shock, were characterized using a combination of multi-frame interferometry/shadowgraphy, and X-ray diagnostics, allowing for a detailed study of their structure and evolution. The velocity was obtained with an X-ray streak camera, and filtered X-ray pinhole imaging was used to infer the electron temperature of the jet and shock. The topology of the ambient plasma density was found to have a significant effect on the jet and shock…
Supersonic plasma outflows driven by multi-beam, high-energy lasers, such as Omega and NIF, have been and will be used as platforms for a variety of laboratory astrophysics experiments. Here we propose a new way of launching high density and high velocity, plasma jets using multiple intense laser beams in a hollow ring formation. We show that such jets provide a more flexible and versatile platform for future laboratory astrophysics experiments. Using high resolution hydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that the collimated jets can achieve much higher density, temperature and velocity when…
Space resolved concentrations of helium He metastable atoms in an atmospheric pressure radio-frequency micro-plasma jet were measured using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. The spatial profile of metastable atoms in the volume between the electrodes was deduced for various electrode gap distances. Density profiles reveal the sheath structure and reflect the plasma excitation distribution, as well as the dominance of the alpha-mode discharge. Gap width variations show the transition from a normal glow plasma to a pure sheath discharge. In order to analyze and verify the experimental…
We describe numerical simulations, using the particle-in-cell (PIC) and hybrid-PIC code Lsp [T. P. Hughes et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 2, 110401 (1999)], of the head-on merging of two laboratory supersonic plasma jets. The goals of these experiments are to form and study astrophysically relevant collisionless shocks in the laboratory. Using the plasma jet initial conditions (density ~ 10^14-10^16 cm^(-3), temperature ~ few eV, and propagation speed ~ 20-100 km/s), large-scale simulations of jet propagation demonstrate that interactions between the two jets are essentially collisionless a…
The implication of the Biermann battery (BB) on turbulent magnetic field amplification in colliding plasma jets produced by high-power lasers is studied by using the FLASH code. It is found that the BB can play a significant role in turbulent field amplification. The small scale fluid structures introduced by turbulence can allow the BB to effectively amplify the magnetic field. When the flow is perpendicular to the magnetic field, the magnetic field amplification is shown to be greater than the case where the flow is parallel.
A multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer [Merritt et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 033506 (2012)] is being used to make time-resolved density measurements of supersonic argon plasma jets on the Plasma Liner Experiment [Hsu et al., Bull. Amer. Phys. Soc. 56, 307 (2011)]. The long coherence length of the laser (>10 m) allows signal and reference path lengths to be mismatched by many meters without signal degradation, making for a greatly simplified optical layout. Measured interferometry phase shifts are consistent with a partially ionized plasma in which an initially positive phase shift become…
Atmospheric pressure plasmas have been ground-breaking for plasma science and technologies, due to their significant application potential in many fields, including medicinal, biological, and environmental applications. This is predominantly due to their efficient production and delivery of chemically reactive species under ambient conditions. One of the challenges in progressing the field is comparing plasma sources and results across the community and the literature. To address this a reference plasma source was established during the `Biomedical Applications of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas'…
A laboratory simulation of astrophysical processes is one of the intensively developed areas of plasma physics. A new series of experiments has been launched recently on the Plasma Focus type facility in NRC Kurchatov Institute. The main goal is to study the mechanisms of the jet stabilization, due to which it can propagate at distances much greater than their transverse dimensions. The experiments with stationary gas filling revealed regimes in which a narrowly collimated plasma jet was formed, the head of which was no wider than several centimeters at jet propagation distances of up to 100 c…
Kinetic model of three component, weakly ionized, collisional plasma with a beam of neutral particles is developed. New dispersion relations for linear perturbations are derived and analyzed in various limiting cases.
We describe gas dynamic and plasma effects for transient plasma jets under different conditions. Our Unified Flow Solver (UFS) is evaluated for simulations of mixed continuum-rarefied flows, transient gas expansion dynamics and collisionless plasma expansion. We identify further advances that are required for hybrid fluid-kinetic simulations of laser-ablation and EEE-induced plasma jets.
Plasmas with anisotropic electron velocity distribution functions are needed for the controlled study of kinetic plasma instabilities in the laboratory. We demonstrate that such plasma can be produced using ultrashort laser pulses via optical-field ionization (OFI). We experimentally show this control by using Thomson scattering as a diagnostic to probe the characteristic electron velocity distributions using linearly and circularly polarized laser pulses to ionize helium. Furthermore the He plasma produced by a circularly polarized light pulse exhibits the onset of the electron streaming inst…
We present time-resolved measurements of ion heating due to collisional plasma shocks and interpenetrating supersonic plasma flows, which are formed by the oblique merging of two coaxial-gun-formed plasma jets. Our study was repeated using four jet species: N, Ar, Kr, and Xe. In conditions with small interpenetration between jets, the observed peak ion temperature Ti is consistent with the predictions of collisional plasma-shock theory, showing a substantial elevation of Ti above the electron temperature Te and also the subsequent decrease of Ti on the classical ion-electron temperature-equili…
The dielectric permeability tensor for spin polarized plasmas is derived in terms of the spin-1/2 quantum kinetic model in six-dimensional phase space. Expressions for the distribution function and spin distribution function are derived in linear approximations on the path of dielectric permeability tensor derivation. The dielectric permeability tensor is derived the spin-polarized degenerate electron gas. It is also discussed at the finite temperature regime, where the equilibrium distribution function is presented by the spin-polarized Fermi-Dirac distribution. Consideration of the spin-pola…
Mega-Gauss Plasma Jet Creation Using a Ring of Laser Beams
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory(普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室);Rice University(莱斯大学);Laboratory for Laser Energetics(激光能学实验室);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);University of Chicago(芝加哥大学);General Atomics(通用原子能公司)
The nonlinear frequency shift is derived in a transparent asymptotic form for intense Langmuir waves in general collisionless plasma. The formula describes both fluid and kinetic effects simultaneously. The fluid nonlinearity is expressed, for the first time, through the plasma dielectric function, and the kinetic nonlinearity accounts for both smooth distributions and trapped-particle beams. Various known limiting scalings are reproduced as special cases. The calculation avoids differential equations and can be extended straightforwardly to other nonlinear plasma waves.
In plasmas with electron drift (current) relative to static ions, the ion acoustic wave is subject to the kinetic instability which takes place if the directed electron speed exceeds the ion acoustic speed. The instability threshold becomes different in the case of one quasi-neutral electron-ion plasma propagating through another static quasi-neutral (target) plasma. The threshold velocity of the propagating plasma may be well below the ion acoustic speed of the static plasma. Such a current-less instability may frequently be expected in space and astrophysical plasmas.
We report on experiments in which magnetically driven radiatively cooled plasma jets were produced by a 1 MA, 250 ns current pulse on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility. The jets were driven by the pressure of a toroidal magnetic field in a ''magnetic tower'' jet configuration. This scenario is characterized by the formation of a magnetically collimated plasma jet on the axis of a magnetic ''bubble'', confined by the ambient medium. The use of a radial metallic foil instead of the radial wire arrays employed in our previous work allows for the generation of episodic magnetic tower outflows which…
A new method that solves concurrently the multi-fluid and Maxwell's equations has been developed for plasma simulations. By calculating the stress tensor in the multi-fluid momentum equation by means of computational particles moving in a self-consistent electromagnetic field, the kinetic effects are retained while solving the multi-fluid equations. The Maxwell's and multi-fluid equations are discretized implicitly in time enabling kinetic simulations over time scales typical of the fluid simulations. The fluid-kinetic Particle-in-Cell solver has been implemented in a three-dimensional electro…
We report the results of a direct comparison between different kinetic models of collisionless plasma turbulence in two spatial dimensions. The models considered include a first principles fully-kinetic (FK) description, two widely used reduced models [gyrokinetic (GK) and hybrid-kinetic (HK) with fluid electrons], and a novel reduced gyrokinetic approach (KREHM). Two different ion beta ($β_i$) regimes are considered: 0.1 and 0.5. For $β_i=0.5$, good agreement between the GK and FK models is found at scales ranging from the ion to the electron gyroradius, thus providing firm evidence for a kin…
The non-modal kinetic theory of the kinetic drift instability of plasma shear flows [Phys.Plasmas, 18, 062103 (2011)] is extended to the investigation of the long-time evolution of the hydrodynamic ion temperature gradient and resistive drift instabilities in plasma shear flow. We find, that these hydrodynamic instabilities passed in their temporal evolution in shear flow through the kinetic stage of the evolution. In linear theory, this evolution involves the time dependent, due to flow shear, effects of the finite Larmor radius, which resulted in the non-modal effect of the decrease with tim…
The low-frequency limit of Maxwell equations is considered in the Maxwell-Vlasov system. This limit produces a neutral Vlasov system that captures essential features of plasma dynamics, while neglecting radiation effects. Euler-Poincaré reduction theory is used to show that the neutral Vlasov kinetic theory possesses a variational formulation in both Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates. By construction, the model recovers all collisionless neutral models employed in plasma simulations. Then, comparisons between the neutral Vlasov system and hybrid kinetic-fluid models are presented in the line…
Large amplitude kinetic Alfvénon (exact Alfvén soliton) matching condition is investigated in quasineutral electron-ion and electron-positron-ion plasmas immersed in a uniform magnetic field. Using the standard pseudopotential method, the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations are exactly solved and a global allowed matching condition for propagation of kinetic solitary waves is derived. It is remarked that, depending on the plasma parameters, the kinetic solitons can be sub- or super-Alfvénic, in general. It is further revealed that, either upper or lower soliton speed-limit is independent of f…
We present experimental results on the formation of supersonic, radiatively cooled jets driven by pressure due to 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 a jet on the axis of a magnetic cavity is collimated by a toroidal magnetic field as it expands into the ambient medium. The jets in the experiments have similar Mach number, plasma beta and cooling parameter to those in protostellar jets. Additionally the Reynolds, magnetic Reynolds …