H. Takabe

Characterizing counter-streaming interpenetrating plasmas relevant to astrophysical collisionless shocks

A series of Omega experiments have produced and characterized high velocity counter-streaming plasma flows relevant for the creation of collisionless shocks. Single and double CH2 foils have been irradiated with a laser intensity ofu2009∼u20091016 W/cm2. The laser ablated plasma was characterized 4 mm from the foil surface using Thomson scattering. A peak plasma flow velocity of 2000 km/s, an electron temperature ofu2009∼u2009110 eV, an ion temperature ofu2009∼u200930 eV, and a density ofu2009∼u20091018 cm−3 were measured in the single foil configuration. Significant increases in electron and ion temperatures were seen in the double foil geometry. The measured single foil plasma conditions were used to calculate the ion skin depth, c/ωpi∼0.16u2003mm, the interaction length, lint, ofu2009∼u20098 mm, and the Coulomb mean free path, λmfp∼27mm. With c/ωpi≪lint≪λmfp, we are in a regime where collisionless shock formation is possible.

Collisionless shockwaves formed by counter-streaming laser-produced plasmas

The interaction between two counter-streaming laser-produced plasmas is investigated using the high-power Shenguang II laser facility. The shockwaves observed in our experiment are believed to be excited by collisionless mechanisms. The dimensionless parameters calculated with the results suggest that it is possible to scale the observation to the supernova remnants using transformation and similarity criteria.

JET FORMATION IN COUNTERSTREAMING COLLISIONLESS PLASMAS

Plasma jet formation was observed in counterstreaming plasmas in a laboratory experiment. In order to model an ambient plasma of astrophysical jets, the counterstreaming plasmas were created by irradiating a double CH-plane target with a high-power laser system. Since the mean free paths of the ions in terms of the counterstreaming motion were larger than the scale length of the experiment, the two-stream interaction of the plasmas was essentially collisionless. The time evolution of the jet collimation was obtained over several shots with different timing by shadowgraphy. When a single CH-plane target was irradiated, no jet collimation was observed. The counterstreaming plasma as an ambient plasma is essential for the jet plasma to collimate.

Laboratory experiment to study collisionless shock

We report the experimental results of collisionless shock formation in counterstreaming plasmas produced by a high-power laser system. The experiment was performed with Gekko XII HIPER laser system at the Institute of Laser Engineering. In order to model collisionless shocks in the universe, supersonic counterstreaming plasma flows were generated using a CH double-plane target. By using the self-emission measurements, we observed the emission increase toward the shock through the downstream. We also observed the density jump associated with the emission increase. The width of the transition region is shorter than the ion-ion mean-free-path calculated from the measured plasma velocity and density.