The electron conductivity of deuterium plasma behind a strong shock wave has been measured by the method of displaced magnetic flux. At shock-wave velocities from 0.9 × 107 to 1.25 × 107 cm/sec electron temperatures of 50 and 90 eV have been found. A comparison between the observed electron temperature and the electron temperature computed from the shock-wave velocity has been made. Piezoelectric measurements and compression of plasma by a strong magnetic field yield exactly the same value of the gas-kinetic pressure of plasma.

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The aim of this study is to reproduce a superalfvenic collisionless shock wave by using the Plasma Focus Facility as a plasma source. The experiments were performed on PF-3 Facility (Plasma Focus Filippov-type) at the level of energy supply up to 1 MJ. At compression of a current-plasma sheet to an axis in the stage of a plasma focus formation, the generation of cumulative plasma jets driven along the axis with a velocity ∼ 10 7 cm/s takes place. This directed driving is realized in the ambient plasma arisen as a result of the working gas ionization by the X-ray radiation of the plasma focus. The transversal magnetic field up to 2500 G was created by the magnetic system based on rare-earth magnets. The experimental conditions allowed us to perform experiments with Alfvén Mach number MA≥3.

Satisfactory agreement has now been obtained between the MHD model and the experimental behaviour of a plasma focus. On the basis of this agreement and similarity theory, the authors formulate various sets of predictions relating to a device with a high energy content. The authors discuss the different sets of predictions and estimate the associated degree of uncertainty. The relationship, derived from extrapolation of the theoretical results, between neutron yield and capacitor bank energy is confirmed experimentally by increasing the latter several times.