Plasma jets merging simulation

The progress on numerical 3D simulations of high density high Mach number plasma jets merging is presented. The modeling was conducted with the particle-in-cell LSP code [1]. A few hypersonic plasma jets (Mach number between 5 and 50) with high density (within the range of 10$^{15}$-10$^{17}$ cm$^{-3})$ were injected for merging in a low density low temperature neutral background gas ($\approx $10$^{13}$ cm$^{-3})$. The dynamics of the merging was studied. Onset of a strong instability, which was observed in the modeling of two, three and five plasma merging jets [2], can essentially affect the front formation and finally can lead to a high turbulent flow. The nature of the instability is discussed. The progress on HyperV plasma accelerator experiment simulation and comparison with a recent experimental data is also reported. \newline [1] T. P. Hughes, S. S. Yu, and R. E. Clark, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 2, 110401, 1999. \newline [2] S. A. Galkin, I. N. Bogatu, J. S. Kim, to be published in PPPS/ICOP 2007 Conference Proceedings. Work is supported by the US DOE SBIR grant and by US DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.