Other
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aas...212.6602g&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #212, #66.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.256
Other
Scientific paper
Twenty years ago it was inconceivable that one could do laboratory experiments that had any bearing on astrophysical processes. The development of large, quiescent, highly magnetized plasma sources, coupled with the availability of high-energy lasers changed all that. Carefully planned experiments can have features similar to those in space although the scaling can never be exact. However measurements of quantities such as local magnetic fields can be done in the lab, not for events many parsecs away. Experiments can unveil phenomena that could be of paramount importance but are not part of the lexicon of current astrophysical models and can stimulate examination of concepts in a new light. Here we present an experiment in which two plasmas, initially far denser than a background magnetoplasma, collide as they move across a magnetic field. The dense plasmas are formed when laser beams strike two targets. The initial high beta plasmas expel the background magnetic fields and undergo instabilities as they move toward each other. The merging plasmas shed electrons aligned along the background magnetic field. This spawns the generation of intense electrostatic and electromagnetic waves. Initial bursts of fast particles evolve into complex, fully three-dimensional current systems. Magnetic field line reconnection events, magnetic flux forced together by the motion of the currents, occur at many locations throughout the plasma volume. The currents in the magnetoplasma are those of Alfvén waves and the physics of these waves plays a great role in the interaction. Magnetic fields and currents derived from them were measured at tens of thousands of spatial locations and as a function of time and are displayed in detailed images and movies. The moving dense plasma also churns up the background plasma and generates ion acoustic waves. The relation of this experiment to several phenomena in astrophysical plasmas will be discussed.
Collette A.
Gekelman Walter
Vincena Stephen
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