Laboratory astroparticle physics

Abstract:

We present results from three-dimensional numerical simulations investigating the magnetohydrodynamics of cloud-wind interactions. The initial cloud is spherical, while the magnetic field is uniform and transverse to the cloud motion. A simplified analytical model that describes the magnetic energy evolution in front of the cloud is developed and compared with simulation results. In addition, it is found that the interaction of the cloud with a magnetized interstellar medium results in the formation of a highly structured magnetotail. The magnetic flux in the wake of the cloud organizes into flux ropes, and a reconnection current sheet is developed as field lines of opposite polarity are brought close together near the symmetry axis. At the same time magnetic pressure is strongly enhanced at the leading edge of the cloud from the stretching of the field lines that occurs there. This has an important dynamical effect on the subsequent evolution of the cloud, since some unstable modes tend to be strongly enhanced.

Abstract:

We present results from the first three-dimensional numerical simulations of moderately supersonic cloud motion through a tenuous, magnetized medium. We show that the interaction of the cloud with a magnetic field perpendicular to its motion has a great dynamical impact on the development of instabilities at the cloud surface. Even for initially spherical clouds, magnetic field lines become trapped in surface deformations and undergo stretching. The consequent field amplification that occurs there and, in particular, its variation across the cloud face then dramatically enhance the growth rate of Rayleigh-Taylor unstable modes, hastening the cloud disruption.

Abstract:

Electron temperature and electron density in a dc plasma jet at atmospheric pressure have been obtained using Thomson laser scattering. Measurements performed at various scattering angles have revealed effects that are not accounted for by the standard scattering theory. Differences between the predicted and experimental results suggest that higher order corrections to the theory may be required, and that corrections to the form of the spectral density function may play an important role. © 1999 The American Physical Society.