Laboratory Investigation of Coupling Between Explosive Piston Plasma and Partially Ionized, Magnetized Plasma

POSTER

Abstract

In many astrophysical systems, such as the solar atmosphere, interstellar medium, planetary atmospheres, and accretion disks, partially ionized plasmas (PIP) play a crucial role in their dynamics. The presence of neutral particles significantly impacts the growth of instabilities, energy transport, and coupling processes between plasma species. This study explores the interaction between a high-energy piston plasma created via laser irradiation of a solid target and a partially ionized, magnetized plasma, focusing primarily on planetary atmospheres. A novel gas puffing system was implemented on the Large Plasma Device at UCLA to locally increase the neutral fraction near the target surface, enabling the examination of its effects on the laminar electric fields that predominantly influence the interaction. The study investigates the effects of decreased ionization fractions in helium and hydrogen plasmas to understand the formation and evolution of diamagnetic cavities in a PIP.

*This work was supported by the Defense Threat ReductionAgency and Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC un-der contract numbers B643014, B649519, and B661613. Theexperiments were performed at the UCLA Basic Plasma Sci-ence Facility (BaPSF), which is a collaborative research fa-cility supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office ofScience, Fusion Energy Sciences program, and the NationalScience Foundation

Presenters

  • Robert S Dorst

    • University of California, Los Angeles

Authors

  • Robert S Dorst

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Shreekrishna Tripathi

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • UCLA

  • Carmen G Constantin

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Jia Han

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Université de Lausanne

  • Ari Le

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • David Jeffrey Larson

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Steve T Vincena

    • UCLA
    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Lucas Rovige

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Misa Cowee

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Derek B Schaeffer

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • UCLA

  • Christoph Niemann

    • University of California, Los Angeles