Supersonic Turbulent Dynamo in Laser-driven Plasma

ORAL

Abstract

Magnetic fields are believed to play a significant role in the dynamics of the interstellar medium (ISM) [1]. Previous experiments conducted at the OMEGA-60 laser facility have demonstrated magnetic field amplification via turbulent dynamo action in subsonic plasmas [2]. However, radiative supersonic turbulence – which is crucial in star formation processes [3], and the stellar mass distribution [4] – is predicted to be less efficient at amplifying magnetic fields [5]. To investigate the properties of supersonic turbulent dynamo, including its dependence on the turbulent Mach number and magnetic Reynolds number, we conducted a laser-plasma experiment on the OMEGA-60 facility. In this experiment, CH foils doped with 6% chlorine were illuminated by ten 500-J, 1-ns laser beams. The plasma expansion was perturbed by grids, introducing asymmetry between counter-propagating jets and generating significant stochasticity in the resulting interaction region. The evolution of this turbulent plasma was diagnosed using temporally resolved, frequency-doubled optical Thomson scattering, x-ray emission imaging, and proton radiography. This experiment demonstrates, for the first time, the realization of supersonic turbulent dynamo in a laboratory environment.

References

[1] Zweibel et al., Nature 385, 131 (1997)

[2] Tzeferacos et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 591 (2018)

[3] Krumholz et al., Front. Astron. Space Sci. 6, 7 (2019)

[4] Padoan et al., Astrophys. J. 576, 870 (2002)

[5] Bott et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 175002 (2021)

*This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under Award Number DE-NA0004144. The Flash Center acknowledges support by the U.S. DOE NNSA under Awards DE-NA0002724, DE-NA0003605, DE-NA0003842, DE-NA0003934, and Subcontracts 630138 and C4574 with Los Alamos National Laboratory; the National Science Foundation under Award PHY-2308844; and the U.S. DOE Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences under Award DE-SC0021990.

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Presenters

  • Hannah Poole

    • University of Oxford
    • University of Rochester

Authors

  • Hannah Poole

    • University of Oxford
    • University of Rochester

  • Archie F.A. Bott

    • University of Oxford

  • Charlotte A Palmer

    • Queen's University Belfast

  • Joshua Chu

    • University of Oxford

  • Timothy Filkins

    • LLE

  • Dustin H Froula

    • University of Rochester

  • Joseph D Katz

    • University of Rochester - Laboratory for Laser Energetics
    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics

  • Jena Meinecke

    • Gettysburg

  • Hye-Sook Park

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Kassie Moczulski

    • University of Rochester

  • James S Ross

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Livermore

  • Alexander A Schekochihin

    • Univ of Oxford
    • Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK

  • Don Q Lamb

    • University of Chicago

  • Gianluca Gregori

    • University of Oxford

  • Petros Tzeferacos

    • University of Rochester