Related papers: Experimental characterization of a transition from…
We present space- and time-resolved experimental data of head-on-merging, supersonic plasma jets (of an argon/impurity mixture) in an initially collisionless regime for counter-streaming ions. The merging begins with collisionless…
We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density $\sim 10^{14}$…
We describe numerical simulations, using the particle-in-cell (PIC) and hybrid-PIC code Lsp [T. P. Hughes et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 2, 110401 (1999)], of the head-on merging of two laboratory supersonic plasma jets. The goals of…
We describe a laboratory plasma physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory that uses two merging supersonic plasma jets formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven rail guns. The jets can be formed using any atomic species or…
We present time-resolved measurements of ion heating due to collisional plasma shocks and interpenetrating supersonic plasma flows, which are formed by the oblique merging of two coaxial-gun-formed plasma jets. Our study was repeated using…
We present spatially resolved measurements characterizing the stagnation layer between two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets. Intra-jet collisionality is very high ($\lambda_{ii} \ll 1$mm), but the inter-jet ion-ion mean free paths…
This work studies the interaction between colliding plasma jets to understand regimes in which jet merging results in shock formation versus regimes in which the shock formation is mitigated due to the collisionless interpenetration of the…
In this experiment, we measure ion temperature evolution of collisional plasma shocks and colliding supersonic plasma flows across a range of species (Ar, Kr, Xe, N), Mach numbers, and collisionalities. Shocks are formed via the collision…
In this paper we present a numerical study of plasma jets produced by intense laser matter interactions. Through this study we hope to better understand astrophysical jets and their recent experimental simulations in the laboratory. We paid…
The interaction between the supersonic jet and background can influence the process of star formation, and this interaction also results in a change of the jet's velocity, direction and density through shock waves. However, due to the…
Collisional plasma shocks generated from supersonic flows are an important feature in many astrophysical and laboratory high-energy-density plasmas. Compared to single-ion-species plasma shocks, plasma shock fronts with multiple ion species…
We present first results of astrophysically relevant experiments where highly supersonic plasma jets are generated via conically convergent flows. The convergent flows are created by electrodynamic acceleration of plasma in a conical array…
We present the results from a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation that models the interaction between a spatially localized electron-positron cloud and an electron-ion plasma. The latter is permeated by a magnetic field that is initially…
We report experimental results on merging of hypersonic plasma jets, which is the fundamental building block for forming spherically imploding plasma liners as a potential standoff compression driver for mangeto-inertial fusion. Jets are…
The interaction of supersonic laser-generated plasma jets with a secondary gas target was studied experimentally. The plasma parameters of the jet, and the resulting shock, were characterized using a combination of multi-frame…
We report experimental results on the parameters, structure, and evolution of high-Mach-number (M) argon plasma jets formed and launched by a pulsed-power-driven railgun. The nominal initial average jet parameters in the data set analyzed…
A multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer [Merritt et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 033506 (2012)] is being used to make time-resolved density measurements of supersonic argon plasma jets on the Plasma Liner Experiment [Hsu et al., Bull.…
We study the effect a guiding magnetic field has on the formation and structure of a pair jet that propagates through a collisionless electron-proton plasma at rest. We model with a PIC simulation a pair cloud with the temperature 400 keV…
Experiments with interacting high-velocity flows of laser plasma can help answer the fundamental questions in plasma physics and improve the understanding of the mechanisms behind astrophysical phenomena, such as formation of collisionless…
Idealized merging argon plasma jets are simulated in 2D using both gas dynamic and MHD models. Results indicate that peak pressures of several hundred kilobar can be achieved for high Mach number jets. Including a simple optically thin…