Observations of the Magnetized Disruption of Collimated Plasma Flows

Abstract

The dynamics of magnetized flows is of great interest to the astrophysics community as the formation and long collimation distances of jets in accretion systems are still open questions. In many of these systems, the background magnetic field is parallel to the jet propagation direction. Recent experiments [1] performed at the Jupiter Laser Facility investigated the effects of imposing a background magnetic field aligned with a collimated jet. Plastic cone targets were irradiated by a long-pulse laser as shown schematically in Fig. 1a. When the shock emerges from the backside of the cone, accelerated material accumulates on axis producing a collimated flow. Figure 1b demonstrates the collimation of the plasma without the background field and the disruption of the flow when applying a 5 T field. Experimental results will be discussed in detail with supporting numerical work describing the mechanisms causing the jet disruption.