Experimental study of semi-relativistic quasi-perpendicular shock formation
ORAL
Abstract
Laboratory studies of microphysics with strong magnetization and relativistic flow velocities may provide insight into extreme astrophysical phenomena. This work studied an asymmetric interaction on the OMEGA EP laser system, by focusing a long pulse laser to ~1014 W/cm2 at a small separation from a relativistic intensity >1019 W/cm2 short pulse laser on a CH foil. A modification of the quasi-static magnetic fields of the long-pulse generated plasma plume is observed in target-normal proton radiographs. Forward modeling shows that this modification is evidence for magnetized shock formation. A 3D OSIRIS particle-in-cell simulation shows that the strong self-generated magnetic fields of the short-pulse plasma drape around the long-pulse plasma plume, forming an unstable contact discontinuity from which a shock is driven.
*Work supported by the NSF under grant no. 1751462 and by the DOE/NNSA under award no. DE-NA0003954. The experiment was conducted at the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics with the beam time through the National Laser Users’ Facility (NLUF) program. The OSIRIS Consortium (UCLA and IST, Lisbon, Portugal) is acknowledged for providing access to the OSIRIS 4.0 framework. Work supported by NSF ACI-1339893.
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Publication: P. T. Campbell, B. K. Russell, C. Dong, G. Fiksel, P. M. Nilson, A. G. R. Thomas, C. A. Walsh, K. M. Krushelnick, and L. Willingale, "Observation of semi-relativistic quasi-perpendicular shocks", in preparation (2022)
Presenters
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Brandon K Russell
- University of Michigan