An exact analytic solution is obtained for a uniformly expanding, neutral, infinitely conducting plasma sphere in an external dipole magnetic field. The electrodynamical aspects related to the radiation and transformation of energy were considered as well. The results obtained can be used in analyzing the recent experimental and simulation data.

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Key wordsThe collisionless interaction of an expanding high-energy plasma cloud with a magnetized background plasma in the presence of a dipole magnetic field is examined in the framework of a 2D3V hybrid (kinetic ions and massless fluid electrons) model. The retardation of the plasma cloud and the dynamics of the perturbed electromagnetic fields and the background plasma are studied for high Alfvén-Mach numbers using the particle-incell method. It is shown that the plasma cloud expands excluding the ambient magnetic field and the background plasma to form a diamagnetic cavity which is accompanied by the generation of a collisionless shock wave. The energy exchange between the plasma cloud and the background plasma is also studied and qualitative agreement with the analytical model suggested previously is obtained.

The electric microfield distribution (MFD) at a neutral point is studied for two-component (TCP) electron-ion plasmas using molecular-dynamics simulation and theoretical models. The particles are treated within classical statistical mechanics using an electron-ion Coulomb potential regularized at distances less than the de Broglie length to take into account quantum-diffraction effects. Corrections to the potential-of-mean-force exponential (PMFEX) approximation recently proposed for the MFD at an impurity ion in a strongly coupled TCP [Nersisyan, Phys. Rev. E 72, 036403 (2005)] are obtained and discussed. This has been done by a generalization of the standard Baranger-Mozer and renormalized cluster expansion techniques originally developed for the one-component plasmas to the TCPs. The results from this theoretical model are compared with those from molecular-dynamics simulations. In particular, for a strongly coupled TCP with an ionic charge Z>5 the agreement with numerical simulations is excellent. For still increasing coupling we furthermore found that the PMFEX scheme becomes insufficient to predict the MFD at a neutral point, while its improved version quite well agrees with the simulations.

The study of hot plasma expansion in a magnetic field is of interest for many astrophysical applications. In order to observe this process in laboratory, an experiment is proposed in which an ultrashort laser pulse produces a high-temperature plasma by irradiation of a small target. In this paper an analytical model is proposed for an expanding plasma cloud in an external dipole or homogeneous magnetic field. The model is based on the self-similar solution of a similar problem which deals with sudden expansion of spherical plasma into a vacuum without ambient magnetic field. The expansion characteristics of the plasma and deceleration caused by the magnetic field are examined analytically. The results obtained can be used in treating experimental and simulation data, and many phenomena of astrophysical and laboratory significance.