Study of plasma jets affected by magnetic and radiative effects at OMEGA

Plasma jets are commonly observed in the universe. They originate from most classes of accreting systems, for instance, the star forming systems, accreting neutron stars, and even black holes. The light resulting from their interaction with surrounding interstellar medium and molecular clouds give us important insights about these astrophysical objects and their systems of origin. Despite this wealth of information and simulations developed to model these jets, a consensus has yet to be reached to describe them in their entirety. In particular, their high collimation and apparent stability continue to be subjects for debate. To better understand these objects and to validate the simulation results, plasma jets were produced at OMEGA 60 laser facility in a controlled environment.

During this experimental campaign, laser beams were employed to ablate the internal surface of a half-sphere target. The expanding coronal plasmas collided at the center of the sphere, resulting in the formation of a high-velocity jet. By varying the material of the target and by using a MIFEDS coil, different radiative and magnetic conditions were studied. In this presentation, the results of this experiment, obtained through a set of diagnostics, will be compared to their equivalent FLASH4 magnetohydrodynamic simulations.