Oblique shocks formed in magnetized plasma flows

We present experiments investigating the interaction of magnetized supersonic plasma flows with different conducting obstacles. Using the MAGPIE facility at Imperial College, London we are able to drive plasma flows from the ablation of inverse wire arrays. The flows are supersonic and super-Alfvenic (v_flow ∼70 km/s, M_A ∼2.5, M∼5) with frozen in magnetic fields of ∼1-2 T [1]. Wire grids placed into the flow, orientated parallel or perpendicular to the advected B-fields are used to control the magnetic field magnitude in the post-grid flow. This then affects the structure of both a network of oblique shocks [2,3] formed after the grid as well as the bow shock [4] formed at an additional, compact obstacle placed further downstream in the flow. Spatially and temporally resolved measurements, obtained using Thomson scattering, laser interferometry, shadowgraphy and Faraday rotation polarimetry, will be presented and discussed.

[1] A. J. Harvey-Thompson et al., PoP 16 (2009)

[2] G. F. Swadling et al., PoP 20 (2013)

[3] S. V. Lebedev et al., PoP 21 (2014)

[4] G. C. Burdiak et al., PoP 24 (2017)