An overview of recent results from the PUFFIN group at MIT

We present recent work by the PUFFIN group at MIT, including:

Oblique shock experiments on COBRA, which using an exploding wire array to drive magnetized plasma flows to interact with an angled, insulating wedge. The shock opening angles are measured using shadowgraphy, enabling the plasma adiabatic index to be measured.

Radiatively cooled reconnection experiments on Z, where we observe the formation and collapse of a reconnection layer using a suite of X-ray diagnostics which reveal the existence of bright hotpots within the layer which correspond to plasmoids in our 3D MHD simulations. We also observe the structure and evolution of the reconnection layer using laser shadowgraphy.

Guide field reconnection on MAIZE, using tilted wire arrays which embed an out-of-plane magnetic field in the reconnection layer. We observe a rotation of the outflows from the reconnection layer on global scales (>10 d_i) indicative of the interplay between the Hall field created by two-fluid effects and the guide field.

The status of the new PUFFIN facility at MIT, a new 1 MA peak current, 1.5 us rise time pulsed-power generator, which is designed to drive plasmas in a quasi-steady-state suitable for studying the growth of instabilities and the development of magnetised turbulence.