Modeling Plasma Jet Generation and Collision via a Ring of Laser Irradiation in Support of Experiment

The collision of two counter-propagating collimated plasmas — jets — is relevant to phenomena in astrophysics and high energy density (HED) environments, namely radiation effects, collisionless shocks and mixing. We have previously performed experiments of this nature on OMEGA where the jets were produced using a ring of lasers and diagnosed with x-ray, proton radiography and Thomson diagnostics. In support of these experiments, we have employed FLASH [1] to create a reliable simulation, allowing for the characterization of the counter-propagating jets' plasma parameters and features. By varying simulation parameters — ranging from the inclusion of magnetic field terms to incrementing the laser-ring radius — and subsequently analyzing synthetic data, we are able to create a comprehensive picture of OMEGA experiments and the physics contained within. The development of the colliding jet FLASH simulations will be shown and the prospect of using particle-in-cell simulations for collisionless regimes will be discussed, along with further refining the relationship between jets simulation and experiment.

[1] B. Fryxell, et al., 2000

This work was supported by US DOE, Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE-SC0020103 and NNSA under Grant No. DE-NA0002721.

The software used in this work was developed in part by the DOE NNSA- and DOE Office of Science supported Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester.