Observation of magnetic field generation via the Weibel instability in interpenetrating plasma flows

Abstract

Collisionless shocks can be produced as a result of strong magnetic fields in a plasma flow, and therefore are common in many astrophysical systems. The Weibel instability is one candidate mechanism for the generation of sufficiently strong fields to create a collisionless shock. Despite their crucial role in astrophysical systems, observation of the magnetic fields produced by Weibel instabilities in experiments has been challenging. Using a proton probe to directly image electromagnetic fields, we present evidence of Weibel-generated magnetic fields that grow in opposing, initially unmagnetized plasma flows from laser-driven laboratory experiments. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that the instability efficiently extracts energy from the plasma flows, and that the self-generated magnetic energy reaches a few percent of the total energy in the system. This result demonstrates an experimental platform suitable for the investigation of a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including collisionless shock formation in supernova remnants, large-scale magnetic field amplification, and the radiation signature from gamma-ray bursts.

References in corpus (7)

• Particle acceleration in relativistic collisionless shocks: Fermi process at last?
• On the structure of relativistic collisionless shocks in electron-ion plasmas
• Strong magnetic fields in normal galaxies at high redshifts
• Filamentation instability of counter-streaming laser-driven plasmas
• One-to-one direct modeling of experiments and astrophysical scenarios: pushing the envelope on kinetic plasma simulations
• Electrostatic and electromagnetic instabilities associated with electrostatic shocks: two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation
• Magnetic field generation and amplification in an expanding plasma

Cited by in corpus (107)

• The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
• Generation and Evolution of High-Mach Number, Laser-Driven Magnetized Collisionless Shocks in the Laboratory
• Relativistic electron streaming instabilities modulate proton beams accelerated in laser-plasma interactions
• Laser-driven strong magnetostatic fields with applications to charged beam transport and magnetized high energy-density physics
• Proton imaging of stochastic magnetic fields
• Physics of Weibel-mediated relativistic collisionless shocks
• Perpendicular relativistic shocks in magnetized pair plasma
• Laboratory Space Physics: Investigating the Physics of Space Plasmas in the Laboratory
• Nonlinear dynamics of the ion Weibel-filamentation instability: an analytical model for the evolution of the plasma and spectral properties
• Time-resolved fast turbulent dynamo in a laser plasma
• Kinetic simulation of magnetic field generation and collisionless shock formation in expanding laboratory plasmas
• The Impact of Plasma Instabilities on the Spectra of TeV Blazars
• Electron-Ion Temperature Ratio in Astrophysical Shocks
• Quantitative shadowgraphy and proton radiography for large intensity modulations
• Disruption of current filaments and isotropization of magnetic field in counter-streaming plasmas
• Multi-scale dynamics of magnetic flux tubes and inverse magnetic energy transfer
• Retrieving transient magnetic fields of ultrarelativistic laser plasma via ejected electron polarization
• Precursor Wave Emission Enhanced by Weibel Instability in Relativistic Shocks
• Weibel instability-mediated collisionless shocks in laser-irradiated dense plasmas:Prevailing role of the electrons in the turbulence generation
• Probing Ultrafast Magnetic-Field Generation by Current Filamentation Instability in Femtosecond Relativistic Laser-Matter Interactions
• Electron polarization in ultrarelativistic plasma current filamentation instabilities
• Magnetic field amplification by a nonlinear electron streaming instability
• Inferring Morphology and Strength of Magnetic Fields From Proton Radiographs
• Physics of relativistic collisionless shocks: The scattering center frame
• Measurements of the growth and saturation of electron Weibel instability in optical-field ionized plasmas
• Amplification of perpendicular and parallel magnetic fields by cosmic ray currents
• Radiation Pressure Driven Ion Weibel Instability and Collisionless Shocks
• Hybrid simulation of a parallel collisionless shock in the Large Plasma Device
• Theory of Electron Injection at Oblique Shock of Finite Thickness
• Shock formation in electron-ion plasmas: mechanism and timing
• How it cramps the flow: three regimes for the saturation of parallel ion-beam instabilities
• Stability analysis of a periodic system of relativistic current filaments
• Corrugation of relativistic magnetized shock waves
• Mega-Gauss Plasma Jet Creation Using a Ring of Laser Beams
• Weibel instability beyond bi-Maxwellian anisotropy
• Machine learning applied to proton radiography
• Weibel-Mediated Shocks Propagating into Inhomogeneous Electron-Positron Plasmas
• Development of an Interpretive Simulation Tool for the Proton Radiography Technique
• The evolution of a slow electrostatic shock into a plasma shock mediated by electrostatic turbulence
• Magnetic Field Saturation of the Ion Weibel Instability in Interpenetrating Relativistic Plasmas
• High-power laser experiment forming a supercritical collisionless shock in a magnetized uniform plasma at rest
• Nuclear Fusion in Laser-Driven Counter-Streaming Collisionless Plasmas
• Anisotropic heating and magnetic field generation due to Raman scattering in laser-plasma interactions
• Cosmic Ray Acceleration and Nonthermal Radiation at Accretion Shocks in the Outer Regions of Galaxy Clusters
• Retrieving fields from proton radiography without source profiles
• Experimental Measurements of Ion Heating in Collisional Plasma Shocks and Interpenetrating Supersonic Plasma Flows
• Weibel instability in hot plasma flows with production of gamma-rays and electron-positron pairs
• Temperature-dependent Saturation of Weibel-type Instabilities in Counter-streaming Plasmas
• Weibel instability driven by spatially anisotropic density structures
• Electron slingshot acceleration in relativistic preturbulent shocks explored via emitted photon polarization
• Spatial-temporal evolution of the current filamentation instability
• Kinetic inhibition of MHD-shocks in the vicinity of a parallel magnetic field
• Persistent mysteries of jet engines, formation, propagation, and particle acceleration: have they been addressed experimentally?
• Formation of collisionless shocks in magnetized plasma interaction with kinetic-scale obstacles
• Sign reversal in magnetic field amplification by relativistic laser-driven microtube implosions
• Proton deflectometry with in situ x-ray reference for absolute measurement of electromagnetic fields in high-energy-density plasmas
• Turbulent magneto-genesis in a collisionless plasma
• Electron heating in high Mach number collisionless shocks
• The effects of collisions on the generation and suppression of temperature anisotropies and the Weibel instability
• Enhanced Magnetic Field Amplification by Ion-Beam Weibel Instability in Weakly Magnetized Astrophysical Shocks
• Kinetic simulations of electron pre-energization by magnetized collisionless shocks in expanding laboratory plasmas
• Mapping the self-generated magnetic fields due to thermal Weibel instability
• Strong surface magnetic field generation in relativistic short pulse laser-plasma interaction with an applied seed magnetic field
• Anomalous plasma acceleration in colliding high-power laser-produced plasmas
• Saturation of the asymmetric current filamentation instability under conditions relevant to relativistic shock precursors
• Nonthermal ion acceleration by the kink instability in nonrelativistic jets
• Particles trajectories in Weibel magnetic filaments with a flow-aligned magnetic field
• MPRAD: A Monte Carlo and ray-tracing code for the proton radiography in high-energy-density plasma experiments
• Density bump formation in a collisionless electrostatic shock wave in a laser-ablated plasma
• Weibel-dominated quasi-perpendicular shock: hybrid simulations and in situ observations
• Efficient generation of turbulent collisionless shocks in laser-ablated counter-streaming plasmas
• Electron Weibel instability induced magnetic fields in optical-field ionized plasmas
• Saturation Level of Ion Weibel Instability and Isotropization Length Scale in Electron-Ion Weibel-Mediated Shocks
• Polarized light from the transportation of a matter-antimatter beam in a plasma
• Magnetic dynamos in galaxy clusters: the crucial role of galaxy formation physics at high redshifts
• Positron acceleration in plasma waves driven by non-neutral fireball beams
• Progress in relativistic laser-plasma interaction with kilotesla-level applied magnetic fields
• Electron Weibel instability and~quasi-magnetostatic structures in~an~expanding collisionless plasma
• Merger and reconnection of Weibel separated relativistic electron beam
• On the Formation and Properties of Fluid Shocks and Collisionless Shock Waves in Astrophysical Plasmas
• Momentum transport and nonlocality in heat-flux-driven magnetic reconnection in high energy density plasmas
• Expansion-Driven Self-Magnetization of High-Energy-Density Plasmas
• Laser-Driven, Ion-Scale Magnetospheres in Laboratory Plasmas. II. Particle-in-cell Simulations
• Reconstructing magnetic deflections from sets of proton images using differential evolution
• Characterizing filamentary magnetic structures in counter-streaming plasmas by Fourier analysis of proton images
• Multi-scale magnetic field structures in an expanding elongated plasma cloud with hot electrons subject to an external magnetic field
• Radiative characterization of supersonic jets and shocks in a laser-plasma experiment
• Transport of and Radiation Production by Trans-relativistic/Non-relativistic Particles Moving Through Sub-Larmor-Scale Electromagnetic Turbulence
• Evolution of three-dimensional Relativistic Ion Weibel Instability: Competition with Kink Instability
• Biermann battery effects on the turbulent dynamo in a colliding plasma jets produced by high-power lasers
• Pair-beam propagation in a magnetised plasma for modelling the polarized radiation emission from gamma-ray bursts in laboratory astrophysics experiments
• Density filamentation nonlinearly driven by the Weibel instability in relativistic beam plasmas
• Radiation From Particles Moving in Small-Scale Magnetic Fields Created in Solid-Density Laser-Plasma Laboratory Experiments
• Diffusion and Radiation in Magnetized Collisionless Plasmas with High-Frequency Small-Scale Turbulence
• Taking control of compressible modes: bulk viscosity and the turbulent dynamo
• Conditions of structural transition for collisionless electrostatic shock
• Theory of the Jitter radiation in a magnetized plasma accompanying temperature gradient
• Energy partition in collisionless counterstreaming plasmas
• (Quasi-)collisional Magneto-optic Effects in Collisionless Plasmas with sub-Larmor-scale Electromagnetic Fluctuations
• On the Quasicollisionality of Plasmas with Small-Scale Electric Turbulence
• Biermann-battery driven magnetized collisionless shock precursors in laser produced plasmas
• Magnetized Current Filaments as a Source of Circularly Polarized Light
• Energy principle for 2D electromagnetic, relativistic, interpenetrating, counter streaming plasma flows
• Numerical heating in particle-in-cell simulations with Monte Carlo binary collisions
• Detailed characterization of laboratory magnetized super-critical collisionless shock and of the associated proton energization
• Plasma Flow Generation and Particle Acceleration from Expanding Magnetic Bubbles
• Ion Weibel Instability in the hybrid framework: the optimal resolution