Visualizing electromagnetic fields in laser-produced counter-streaming plasma experiments for collisionless shock laboratory astrophysics

Kugland, N. L.; Ross, J. S.; Chang, Po-Yu; Drake, R. P.; Fiksel, G.; Froula, D. H.; Glenzer, S. H.; Gregori, G.; Grosskopf, M.J.; Huntington, C. M.; Kœnig, M.; Kuramitsu, Yasuhiro; Kuranz, Carolyn; Levy, M. C.; Liang, Edison; Martinez, D.; Meinecke, J.; Miniati, Francesco; Morita, T.; Pełka, A.; Plechaty, C.; Presura, R.; Ravasio, A.; Remington, B. A.; Reville, Brian; Ryutov, D. D.; Sakawa, Y.; Spitkovsky, Anatoly; Takabe, H.; Park, H. S.

doi:10.1063/1.4804548

Cited by 41 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…The magnetic field in the ribbons is strong enough to completely deflect the protons from those regions, leaving a deficit of protons and reflected as white, unexposed film. A sharp, "caustic" proton boundary [17] of very high fluence -a feature well-reproduced in our modelingappears immediately on the outside of each ribbon, forming an important point of comparison between simulation and experiment.…”

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confidence: 92%

Magnetic Reconnection between Colliding Magnetized Laser-Produced Plasma Plumes

et al. 2014

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Observations of magnetic reconnection between colliding plumes of magnetized laser-produced plasma are presented. Two counter-propagating plasma flows are created by irradiating oppositely placed plastic (CH) targets with 1.8 -kJ, 2 -ns laser beams on the Omega EP Laser System. The interaction region between the plumes is pre-filled with a low-density background plasma and magnetized by an externally applied magnetic field, imposed perpendicular to the plasma flow, and initialized with an X-type null point geometry with B = 0 at the midplane and B = 8 T at the targets. The counter-flowing plumes sweep up and compress the background plasma and the magnetic field into a pair of magnetized ribbons, which collide, stagnate, and reconnect at the midplane, allowing the first detailed observations of a stretched current sheet in laser-driven reconnection experiments. The dynamics of current sheet formation are in good agreement with first-principles particle-in-cell simulations that model the experiments.PACS numbers: 52.27.-h, 52.35.Vd, 52.65. Rr, 52.72.+v, 94.30.cp Throughout the Universe, magnetic reconnection allows the magnetic field to change its topology and thereby allow an explosive release of stored energy [1][2][3]. Recently, a number of experiments have been carried out studying magnetic reconnection using laser-driven plasmas [4][5][6][7][8]. These experiments are in many ways complementary to traditional reconnection experiments with magnetized discharge plasmas [3]. Some notable features include the high plasma beta, strong inflows, and strong magnetic flux pile-up. This regime is very interesting as there are a number of space and astrophysical contexts where supersonic, magnetized flows collide, such as interactions of planetary magnetospheres with the solar wind [9], interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium at the heliopause [10,11], and pulsar windtermination shocks [12], to name only a few.Previous laser-driven experiments studied the reconnection of the self-generated (e.g., Biermann battery) magnetic fields between colliding laser-produced plasma plumes [4][5][6][7][8]. Magnetic field annihilation [5] has been observed, as well as plasma jets [4,[6][7][8] and electron energization [8]. This Letter presents, for the first time, results on reconnection of an externally applied magnetic field by counter-propagating, laser-driven colliding highenergy density (HED) plasmas. These experiments are based on new techniques for externally controlled magnetization of ablated plasma plumes. The geometry of this externally magnetized plasma experiment makes it amenable to end-to-end simulation with particle-in-cell codes modeling the entire progression of the experiment, including plasma formation and assembly of the current sheet. While previous results in HED plasmas could infer reconnection through annihilation of the magnetic field [5], this work is the first to observe clear stagnation of the counter-propagating magnetized ribbons and the formation of an extended reconnection layer. T...

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Magnetic Reconnection between Colliding Magnetized Laser-Produced Plasma Plumes

et al. 2014

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“…Weibel instability-driven magnetic filament [97,96,188]. Note that in this representation B 0 is not a maximum value of the field; the maximum is reached at r = a/ p 2 and is equal to B peak = B 0 / p 2e ⇡ 0.43B 0 where e is the natural logarithm base.…”

Section: Specifying Source and Detector Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This geometry is motivated by the standard experimental geometry of the ACSEL group. [97,96,180,181] We now ask the question: in future experiments what kinds of radiograph structures could we expect for proton sampling along the flow axis?…”

Section: Application To the Filamentation Instability In Millimeterscmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spatial extent is specified, taking the ellipsoids for example, using the parameters a and b representing the major and semi-major axes respectively. By varying the ratio a/b the user can produce field structures representative of Weibel instability-driven magnetic filaments, as well as advecting laser-driven Biermann battery-like magnetic 'pancakes' [98,96,188].…”

Section: Tools For Constructing Electromagnetic Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The user has a number of high level options for inputting these fields, for example generating a lattice of primitives or programmatically including randomization e↵ects, that are enumerated in section 6.1.1. By combining primitives together the user can simulate fields representative of a large number of important HED processes including electrostatic planar shock waves, magnetized cylindrical shocks, two-stream and other electrostatic instabilities, intense laser-driven rn ⇥ rT 'Biermann battery' magnetic fields (for plasma density n and temperature T ) and filamentary magnetic field structures generated via the Weibel instability [97,77,188,96].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Modeling of Intense Laser Driven High Energy Density Plasmas

Levy¹

2014

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Illuminating matter with petawatt (one quadrillion watts) laser light creates extreme states of plasmas with temperatures exceeding ten million degrees Celsius and pressures exceeding one billion earth atmospheres. These high energy density conditions are driven at the microscopic scale by dense currents of relativistic electrons, oscillating violently in the intense laser fields, as well as the plasma processes arising when these particles lose phase coherence and are injected into bulk target material. Suitably harnessed, this setup opens the way to compact relativistic particle accelerators, laser fusion energy sources, laboratory astrophysics, ultrafast imaging systems, proton cancer therapies, anti-matter creation, high-energy radiation sources and intense high harmonic generation. In this thesis, theoretical models of the absorption of high power laser light by matter are derived, applications of these models are investigated, and simulation tools supporting the diagnosis and implementation of these applications are developed.In particular, an advanced, relativistically-correct theoretical model of petawatt laser absorption by optically-thick targets is developed, accounting for both ion and electron beam aspects of the interaction. Predictions of the model for the energetic properties of these beams, as well as the dynamical motion of the laser-matter interface, are elucidated. Results from high resolution, relativistic, kinetic particle-in-cell simulations using the LSP code are shown to be in good agreement with the model. intensity I l and wavelength l . These results are shown to bound several dozens of published experimental and simulation data points, underlining the usefulness of the iii model. These results are extended to include e↵ects related to heterogeneous plasmas, including relativistically-underdense plasmas relevant to 'pre-plasma' situations, and realistic laser spatio-temporal profiles. Our dynamic considerations of absorption processes are then extended to the 10-petawatt scale. In a manner that could support reaching the QED-plasma regime, a mechanism of focusing high power laser light to higher intensities is elucidated. Supporting the measurement and validation of these models, the development of a new simulation tool for understanding high energy density plasmas, based on the proton radiography technique, is detailed. AcknowledgementsOver the past 5 1 / 2 years it has often seemed that pursuit of graduate studies has formed an exercise in the stewardship of resources entrusted to me by advisors, mentors, collaborators and others. In endeavors bearing fruit, my stewardship of these resources has seemed adequate. In the totality of outcomes, to these people I wish to express my warmest and deepest gratitude. At Livermore I am particularly grateful to Tony Link for interesting and useful discussions on intense laser-plasma interactions and on the LSP code. I also wish to thank my colleagues

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