Exploration of Magnetic-Field Generation via Biermann Battery Using the FLASH Code to Model Experiments Performed at UCLA’s Phoenix Laboratory

Magnetic fields are omnipresent in our universe and a key astrophysical process behind their origin is the Biermann battery mechanism.[1] This mechanism generates magnetic fields caused by misaligned density and temperature gradients, also encountered in terrestrial laser-driven plasma experiments.[2] Therefore, the latter are ideal for validating the theory and simulation tools used to model magnetic-field generation in astrophysical and laboratory environments. Recent high-repetition-rate laser experiments performed by the HEDP Group at UCLA[3] on the PEENING laser are furnishing large data sets of Bierman battery magnetic-field measurements in expanding plasma plumes via B-dot probes, centimeters away from the laser–target interaction. In this talk we present numerical simulations that model these experiments, using the multiphysics radiation-magnetohydrodynamics code FLASH. The simulations allow us to explore a variety of questions regarding the plasma properties of the expanding plasma plumes and the strength and spatial distribution of the Biermann battery magnetic fields. 

 

[1] L. Biermann and A. Schlüter, Z. Naturforschg. 5a, 65 (1950).

[2] M. G. Haines, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 28, 1705 (1986).

[3] J. J. Pilgram et al., this conference.