Strong Suppression of Heat Conduction in Laser-Driven Magnetized Turbulent Plasmas

ORAL

Abstract

Astronomical observations of galaxy-cluster cores reveal temperatures that are significantly higher than expected from the relatively short radiative-cooling time scales. While the central active galactic nuclei are thought to provide most of the heating, the presence of stochastic magnetic fields at equipartition with the kinetic energy of the turbulent motions is expected to impact thermal transport. We present laser-driven experiments by the Turbulent Dynamo collaboration at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility that realize magnetized turbulence and plasma properties relevant to those in galaxy clusters. The experiments, designed with high-fidelity FLASH simulations, demonstrate a strong suppression of local heat transport by two orders of magnitude or more. The suppression results in pronounced temperature fluctuations at small spatial scales, akin to the cold fronts observed in galaxy-cluster plasmas.

*This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856. This work was supported in part by the EPSRC, U.S. DOE NNSA, U.S. DOE SC, NSF, AWE, and STFC. We acknowledge awards of compute time by the U.S. DOE SC ALCC program and manufacturing support from GA. The experiments were conducted at the National Ignition Facility at LLNL under the auspices of the Discovery Science program.

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Publication: arXiv:2105.08461

Presenters

  • Petros Tzeferacos

    • University of Rochester

Authors

  • Petros Tzeferacos

    • University of Rochester

  • Jena Meinecke

    • University of Oxford

  • James S Ross

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab

  • Archie Bott

    • Princeton University

  • Scott Feister

    • California State University Channel Islands

  • Hye-Sook Park

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL

  • Tony Bell

    • University of Oxford

  • Robert Bingham

    • University of Strathclyde
    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom; Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom

  • Alexis Casner

    • CEA CESTA
    • CEA

  • Dustin H Froula

    • University of Rochester
    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester
    • Lab for Laser Energetics
    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics
    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Michel Koenig

    • Ecole Polytechnique
    • LULI
    • LULI & Ecole Polytechnique

  • Chikang Li

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • MIT

  • Yingchao Lu

    • University of Rochester

  • Charlotte A Palmer

    • Queen's University Belfast

  • Richard Petrasso

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • MIT

  • Hannah Poole

    • University of Oxford

  • Bruce A Remington

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL

  • Brian Reville

    • Queens University Belfast
    • Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik
    • Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg

  • Adam Reyes

    • University of Rochester

  • Alexandra Rigby

    • University of Oxford

  • Dongsu Ryu

    • UNIST

  • Francesco Miniati

    • University of Oxford

  • Subir Sarkar

    • University of Oxford

  • Alexander A Schekochihin

    • University of Oxford
    • Univ of Cambridge

  • Don Q Lamb

    • University of Chicago

  • Gianluca Gregori

    • University of Oxford
    • Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom