Collisionless shock generation in high-speed counterstreaming plasma flows by a high-power laser

• DOI: 10.1063/1.3524269
• Publication Date: 2010-12-01T23:16:17Z
• Authors: T. Morita; Y. Sakawa; Y. Kuramitsu; S. Dono; H. Aoki; H. Tanji; T. N. Kato; Y. T. Li; Y. Zhang; X. Liu; J. Y. Zhong; H. Takabe; J. Zhang
• Keywords: Momentum (technical analysis); Weibel instability

The experimental demonstration of the formation a strong electrostatic (ES) collisionless shock has been carried out with high-speed counterstreaming plasmas, produced by high-power laser irradiation, without external magnetic field. nearly four times density jump observed in experiment shows high Mach-number shock. This large is attributed to compression downstream plasma momentum transfer ion reflection upstream plasma. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation production ES interaction two slabs different temperatures and densities, as pointed Sorasio et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045005 (2006)]. It speculated that discontinuity balanced incoming reflected ions predominant pressure electrons PIC simulation.