Journal article
Observations of pressure anisotropy effects within semi-collisional magnetized plasma bubbles
- Abstract:
- Magnetized plasma interactions are ubiquitous in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Various physical effects have been shown to be important within colliding plasma flows influenced by opposing magnetic fields, however, experimental verification of the mechanisms within the interaction region has remained elusive. Here we discuss a laser-plasma experiment whereby experimental results verify that Biermann battery generated magnetic fields are advected by Nernst flows and anisotropic pressure effects dominate these flows in a reconnection region. These fields are mapped using time-resolved proton probing in multiple directions. Various experimental, modelling and analytical techniques demonstrate the importance of anisotropic pressure in semi-collisional, high-β plasmas, causing a reduction in the magnitude of the reconnecting fields when compared to resistive processes. Anisotropic pressure dynamics are crucial in collisionless plasmas, but are often neglected in collisional plasmas. We show pressure anisotropy to be essential in maintaining the interaction layer, redistributing magnetic fields even for semi-collisional, high energy density physics (HEDP) regimes.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 1.3MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41467-020-20387-7
Authors
- Publisher:
- Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Communications More from this journal
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 2021
- Article number:
- 334
- Publication date:
- 2021-01-12
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-11-24
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2041-1723
- ISSN:
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2041-1723
- Pmid:
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33436570
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1158228
- Local pid:
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pubs:1158228
- Deposit date:
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2021-02-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Tubman et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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