Numerical Modeling of Laser-Driven Turbulent Plasmas to Study Fluctuation Dynamo and the Role of Astrophysical Magnetic Fields

Dynamo in astrophysical turbulence is a key process for amplifying magnetic fields. The advent of high-power laser systems, along with the scaling of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), has made it possible to recreate astrophysical conditions and processes in terrestrial laboratories. Our recent work has studied the role of magnetic fields with large magnetic Reynolds numbers, above-unity magnetic Prandtl numbers, and in the supersonic and radiative regimes. We present 3-D radiation-MHD FLASH simulations used to design and interpret laser-driven plasma experiments of fluctuation dynamo. At the National Ignition Facility, we demonstrated that magnetized turbulence can strongly suppress local heat transport by two orders of magnitude or more, relevant to the heat transport in astrophysical plasmas in galaxy clusters. On Laser Mégajoule PETAL, we created a magnetized, turbulent, and supersonic plasma that can be applied to understanding turbulence and field amplification in supersonic regimes such as those in the interstellar medium. We present an overview of the design and interpretation of these experiments using the FLASH code. We validated and compared the numerical results with experimental data using synthetic diagnostics such as proton radiography, Thomson scattering, and x-ray self-emission.