Although bipolar jets are seen emerging from a wide variety of astrophysical systems, the issue of their formation and morphology beyond their launching is still under study. Our scaled laboratory experiments, representative of young stellar object outflows, reveal that stable and narrow collimation of the entire flow can result from the presence of a poloidal magnetic field whose strength is consistent with observations. The laboratory plasma becomes focused with an interior cavity. This gives rise to a standing conical shock from which the jet emerges. Following simulations of the process at the full astrophysical scale, we conclude that it can also explain recently discovered x-ray emission features observed in low-density regions at the base of protostellar jets, such as the well-studied jet HH 154.

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Experimental results are presented from studies of the dynamics of X-pinch plasmas, formed using two fine wires that cross and touch at a single point (in the form of an X) as the load of a high current pulser. High-resolution (sub-ns in time and 2–3 μm in space) x-ray radiographs of X pinches driven by current pulses that rise to 200–250 kA peak current in 40 ns show that ⩽300 μm long Z pinches form in the region of the original wire cross-point a few ns prior to the first sub-ns intense x-ray bursts that are characteristic of an X pinch. The Z pinches implode to ⩽10 μm diam and then appear to develop gaps in the radiographic images in one or two places, coincident in time with the x-ray burst(s). The emission spectra of the intense x-ray bursts from different wire materials indicate electron temperatures of 500–1300 eV and densities in excess of 1022/cm3.

Wire-array Z-pinch implosion experiments begin with wire heating, explosion, and plasma formation phases that are driven by an initial 50–100 ns, 0–1 kA/wire portion of the current pulse. This paper presents expansion rates for the dense, exploding wire cores for several wire materials under these conditions, with and without insulating coatings, and shows that these rates are related to the energy deposition prior to plasma formation around the wire. The most rapid and uniform expansion occurs for wires in which the initial energy deposition is a substantial fraction of the energy required to completely vaporize the wire. Conversely, wire materials with less energy deposition relative to the vaporization energy show complex internal structure and the slowest, most nonuniform expansion. This paper also presents calibrated radial density profiles for some Ag wire explosions, and structural details present in some wire explosions, such as foam-like appearance, stratified layers and gaps.