Accretion Shocks in the Laboratory: Using the OMEGA Laser to Study Star Formation

We present an on-going series of experiments using the OMEGA laser (Laboratory for Laser Energetics) to study star formation. Stars like our Sun experience ``magnetospheric accretion'' during their formation, wherein material from their surrounding accretion disk hurtles to their surface along magnetic field lines, where it forms an ``accretion shock.'' We have created a scaled ``accretion shock'' experiment where a plasma jet collides with a solid block; this is meant to mimic a stream of accreting material colliding with the surface of a young star. Visible image data show a dense shocked region forming that may ``bore into'' the block. We discuss how this may explain observations from young star systems and how the experiment could be further refined. This work is funded by the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, grant number DE-NA0001840, and by the National Laser User Facility Program, grant number DE-NA0002032.