Laboratory Plasma Experiments on Jets, Kinks, and Spheromaks

Details Laboratory Plasma Experiments on Jets, Kinks, and Spheromaks Laboratory Plasma Experiments on Jets, Kinks, and Spheromaks

Oct 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003aps..dpplm1005h&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, 45th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics, October 27-31, 2003, Albuquerque, New Mexico,

Physics

Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

This talk will give an overview of magnetized coaxial gun experiments done at Caltech over the past few years. The goal of these experiments was to study magnetic topology evolution resulting from magnetic helicity injection, with an eye toward investigating commonalities between laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. With the benefit of a very simple coaxial gun design and a fast multiple-frame CCD camera, we were able to demonstrate experimentally two interesting results: (a) magnetic collimation of a plasma by twisting up a background magnetic field [Hsu & Bellan, MNRAS 334, 257 (2002)], qualitatively similar to MHD models of astrophysical jet formation, and (b) identification of the kink instability as a poloidal flux amplification mechanism for coaxial gun spheromak formation [Hsu & Bellan, PRL 90, 215002 (2003)]. Our plasmas satisfy the MHD approximation globally, and the two plasma regimes above are achieved by simply adjusting the ratio of gun current to flux. We will present movies of the plasma evolution and also magnetic probe measurements. The rich plasma dynamics and topologies resulting from magnetic helicity injection in a simple system will hopefully stimulate new exchange of ideas in the long tradition of synergy between plasma physics and astrophysics.

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