Exploration of Early Universe Magnetogenesis with High Repetition Rate Laboratory Astrophysics Experiments and FLASH Simulations

Magnetic fields are pervasive on cosmological and galactic scales, and understanding their formation and evolution is essential to our understanding of modern cosmology. One of the predominant proposed mechanisms for the origin of these fields is via the Biermann battery effect, which describes the spontaneous generation of magnetic fields due to non-parallel density and temperature gradients in plasmas. Though the effect is difficult to observe directly in the intergalactic medium, due to its relatively small magnitude and the large spatial scales along which measurements are made, advancements in the field of laboratory astrophysics in recent decades now allows us to use scaling relations to investigate these phenomena on laboratory scales. Using FLASH, a high-performance radiation-hydrodynamics code with extended magnetohydrodynamic terms, we collaborate with experimentalists at UCLA to model the generation of Biermann-driven fields in such a laboratory setting, using high repetition rate laser produced plasmas at a frequency of ~1 Hz. We validate the FLASH code in new spatiotemporal regimes, and we use these newly validated capabilities to assist in the modeling and design of ongoing laboratory astrophysics experiments that introduce a nitrogen fill to the target chamber to facilitate shocks in the system. We also perform large scale simulations to investigate the generation and subsequent amplification of seed fields and their impact on large scale structure.