Inefficient Magnetic-Field Amplification in Supersonic Laser-Plasma Turbulence

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Inefficient Magnetic-Field Amplification in Supersonic Laser-Plasma Turbulence

A. F. A. Bott, L. Chen, G. Boutoux, T. Caillaud, A. Duval, M. Koenig, B. Khiar, I. Lantuéjoul, L. Le-Deroff, B. Reville, R. Rosch, D. Ryu, C. Spindloe, B. Vauzour, B. Villette, A. A. Schekochihin, D. Q. Lamb, P. Tzeferacos, G. Gregori, and A. Casner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 175002 – Published 21 October 2021

Abstract

We report a laser-plasma experiment that was carried out at the LMJ-PETAL facility and realized the first magnetized, turbulent, supersonic ( ${Ma}_{turb} \approx 2.5$ ) plasma with a large magnetic Reynolds number ( $Rm \approx 45$ ) in the laboratory. Initial seed magnetic fields were amplified, but only moderately so, and did not become dynamically significant. A notable absence of magnetic energy at scales smaller than the outer scale of the turbulent cascade was also observed. Our results support the notion that moderately supersonic, low-magnetic-Prandtl-number plasma turbulence is inefficient at amplifying magnetic fields compared to its subsonic, incompressible counterpart.

Received 20 August 2020
Revised 7 June 2021
Accepted 17 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.175002

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Laboratory studies of space & astrophysical plasmas Magnetic field generation & plasma dynamo Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Plasma Physics

Authors & Affiliations

A. F. A. Bott ^1,2,*, L. Chen¹, G. Boutoux³, T. Caillaud³, A. Duval³, M. Koenig^4,5, B. Khiar⁶, I. Lantuéjoul³, L. Le-Deroff ⁷, B. Reville ⁸, R. Rosch³, D. Ryu ⁹, C. Spindloe¹⁰, B. Vauzour³, B. Villette³, A. A. Schekochihin ^1,11, D. Q. Lamb⁶, P. Tzeferacos^1,6,12,13, G. Gregori¹, and A. Casner ^3,14

¹Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
²Department of Astrophysical Sciences, University of Princeton, 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
³CEA-DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France
⁴LULI, CNRS, CEA, Ecole Polytechnique, UPMC, Sorbonne Universités, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, F-91128 Palaiseau cedex, France
⁵Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
⁶Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
⁷CEA, DAM, CESTA, F-33114 Le Barp, France
⁸Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 10 39 80, 69029 Heidelberg, Germany
⁹Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, UNIST, Ulsan 44919, Korea
¹⁰Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0XQ, United Kingdom
¹¹Merton College, Merton Street, Oxford OX1 4JD, United Kingdom
¹²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, 206 Bausch & Lomb Hall, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
¹³Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623, USA
¹⁴Université de Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, CELIA, UMR 5107, F-33405 Talence, France

^*abott@princeton.edu

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 17 — 22 October 2021

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