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Observed Suppression of Self-Generated Magnetic Fields in a Laser-Driven Cylindrical Implosion

ORAL

Abstract

A cylindrical implosion using the mini-MagLIF platform at the Omega Laser Facility used oblique proton radiography to measure self-generated magnetic fields produced by the Biermann battery mechanism in the coronal plasma. Proton radiography oblique to the axis of the cylindrical target allows axially resolved measurements of self-generated azimuthal magnetic fields, which are not possible at normal incidence. These experimental measurements are compared to synthetic proton radiographs generated by the PlasmaPy proton radiography module [1] using fields from three-dimensional HYDRA simulations. This comparison shows that magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) overpredicts the self-generated field by a factor of ~2 to 3. Simulations also show that collisionality is low in the region where the fields are generated, suggesting that nonlocal effects may be responsible for the discrepancy. This result provides experimental evidence for previous theoretical predictions that nonlocal effects can result in suppressed self-generated magnetic fields relative to MHD.
 
[1] PlasmaPy Community et al., PlasmaPy (Version 0.6.0), Zenodo, Accessed 14 March 2021, http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4602818.

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Publication: Heuer et al. "Observed Suppression of Self-Generated Magnetic Fields in a Laser-Driven Cylindrical Implosion" (in preparation)

Presenters

  • Peter V Heuer

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester

Authors

  • Peter V Heuer

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester

  • Luis S Leal

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, University of Rochester

  • Jonathan R Davies

    University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Edward C Hansen

    University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Daniel H Barnak

    University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Jonathan L Peebles

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Lab for Laser Energetics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, University of Rochester

  • Andrew Birkel

    MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, PSFC, MIT