Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aas...212.0339l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #212, #3.39; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.191
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Recent observations indicate that radio lobes are gigantic "relaxed" magnetized plasmas with kilo-to-megaparsec scale jets providing a source of magnetic energy from the galaxy to the lobes. We therefore have proposed a laboratory plasma experiment, in which a higher pressure
magnetized plasma bubble (i.e., the lobe) is injected into a lower pressure background plasma (i.e., the intergalactic medium) to study key nonlinear plasma physics issues. Here we present detailed ideal magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) three-dimensional simulations of this experiment.
The properties of the evolution of the bubble is dependent on the value of α. Larger α results in a axially expanding bubble like a growing ``mushroom" while smaller α produces something like a "crab", expanding horizontally. The expansion of the bubble generates one perpendicular shock and one reversal slow-mode compressible MHD wave front, where 3-D reconnection is happening. The structure of shock/wavefront is almost independent of the injection velocity if it is reasonably low. The initially uniformly rotating bubble quickly evolves into a quasi-force-free state and transits to two oppositely-rotating bubbles. The axial angular momentum has been transported from the side where the bubble field is along the background field to the side where the bubble field is opposite to the background field. The discovery of MHD shocks shows that our experimental facility provides a good opportunity to study the MHD shocks, which are hardly to be observed in a laboratory experiment. Comparison of models and measurements will be used to validate the theoretical tools, which we will apply to nonlinear relaxation of magnetized plasma in astrophysical systems.
Hsu Stephen
Li Handong
Li Shiheng
Liu Wei
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