Experimental investigation of the interaction of a shock wave with a magnetic field

Borisov, M. B.; Zaitsev, S. G.; Chebotareva, E. I.; Lazareva, E. V.

doi:10.1007/bf01014005

Fluid Dyn

1973

DOI: 10.1007/bf01014005

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Experimental investigation of the interaction of a shock wave with a magnetic field

M. B. Borisov¹,

S. G. Zaitsev²,

E. I. Chebotareva³

et al.

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2017

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“…They are most easily described in a one-dimensional geometry. Shock tube experiments [1,2], which enforce such a geometry, examined shocks in partially magnetized and collisional plasma. Particle collisions equilibrate the plasma and macroscopic quantities like flow speed and temperature are uniquely defined.…”

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confidence: 99%

Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma

et al. 2017

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The expansion of a dense plasma into a dilute plasma across an initially uniform perpendicular magnetic field is followed with a one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation over MHD time scales. The dense plasma expands in the form of a fast rarefaction wave. The accelerated dilute plasma becomes separated from the dense plasma by a tangential discontinuity at its back. A fast magnetosonic shock with the Mach number 1.5 forms at its front. Our simulation demonstrates how wave dispersion widens the shock transition layer into a train of nonlinear fast magnetosonic waves. A thermal pressure gradient in a magnetized plasma accelerates the dense plasma towards the dilute one and a rarefaction wave develops. The collision of the expanding plasma with the dilute plasma triggers shocks if the collision speed exceeds the phase velocity of the fastest ion wave. In the rest frame of the shock, the fast-moving upstream plasma is slowed down, compressed and heated as it crosses the shock and moves downstream. This net flux adds material to the downstream plasma, which lets the shock expand into the upstream direction.Shocks have been widely examined due to their key role in regulating the transfer of mass, momentum and energy in plasma. They are most easily described in a one-dimensional geometry. Shock tube experiments [1,2], which enforce such a geometry, examined shocks in partially magnetized and collisional plasma. Particle collisions equilibrate the plasma and macroscopic quantities like flow speed and temperature are uniquely defined. The time-evolution of these quantities is described well by the equations of single-fluid magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) if collisions are frequent enough to establish a thermal equilibrium between electrons and ions on the time scales of interest. Numerical shock tube experiments investigating the thermal expansion of plasma have also been performed in order to test single-fluid MHD codes, since the important MHD shocks emerge under such conditions [3,4].However, not all plasma shocks are collisional. The mean free path of the particles in the plasma, in which the Earth's bow shock [5] is immersed, is large compared to the thickness of its transition layer and it is sustained by electromagnetic fields. Collisionless plasmas support energetic structures that are not captured by a single-fluid MHD theory and that can play a vital role in the thermalization of plasma. Examples are magnetosonic solitons [6,7] and the beams of shock-reflected particles ahead of the bow shock [8], which enforce a non-stationarity of the shock [9-12]. Single-fluid MHD simulations are nevertheless used to solve problems in collisionless plasma based on the argument that they can describe the plasma dynamics on a large enough scale.Here we examine with the particle-in-cell (PIC) code EPOCH [13] the relaxation of a thermal pressure gradient in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We thus perform a numerical shock tube experiment with collisionless plasma to test the hypothesis that the plasma evolut...

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Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma

et al. 2017

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Experimental investigation of the interaction of a shock wave with a magnetic field

Cited by 1 publication

References 7 publications

Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma

Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma

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