Measurement of Magnetic Cavitation Driven by Heat Flow in a Plasma

We describe the direct measurement of the expulsion of a magnetic field from a plasma driven by heat flow. Using a laser to heat a column of gas within an applied magnetic field, we isolate Nernst advection and show how it changes the field over a nanosecond timescale. Reconstruction of the magnetic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Physical review letters Vol. 131; no. 1; p. 015101
Main Authors:	Arran, C, Bradford, P, Dearling, A, Hicks, G S, Al-Atabi, S, Antonelli, L, Ettlinger, O C, Khan, M, Read, M P, Glize, K, Notley, M, Walsh, C A, Kingham, R J, Najmudin, Z, Ridgers, C P, Woolsey, N C
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States American Physical Society 07-07-2023
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	We describe the direct measurement of the expulsion of a magnetic field from a plasma driven by heat flow. Using a laser to heat a column of gas within an applied magnetic field, we isolate Nernst advection and show how it changes the field over a nanosecond timescale. Reconstruction of the magnetic field map from proton radiographs demonstrates that the field is advected by heat flow in advance of the plasma expansion with a velocity v_{N}=(6±2)×10^{5} m/s. Kinetic and extended magnetohydrodynamic simulations agree well in this regime due to the buildup of a magnetic transport barrier.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 USDOE
ISSN:	0031-9007 1079-7114
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.015101