Thursday, April 25, 2013

1304.6524 (H Ahmed et al.)

Time-resolved characterization of the formation of a collisionless shock    [PDF]

H Ahmed, ME Dieckmann, L Romagnani, D Doria, G Sarri, M Cherchez, E Ianni, I Kourakis, AL Giesecke, M Notley, R Prasad, K Quinn, O Willi, M Borghesi
We report on the temporally and spatially resolved detection of the precursory stages that lead to the formation of an unmagnetized, supercritical collision-less shock in a laser-driven laboratory experiment. The measured evolution of the electrostatic potential associated with the shock unveils the transition from a current free double layer into a symmetric shock structure, stabilized by ion reflection at the shock front. Supported by a matching Particle-In-Cell simulation and theoretical considerations, we suggest that this process is analogeous to ion reflection at supercritical collisionless shocks in supernova remnants.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.6524

No comments:

Post a Comment