The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory

Abstract

The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory (WiPAL) is a flexible user facility designed to study a range of astrophysically relevant plasma processes as well as novel geometries that mimic astrophysical systems. A multi-cusp magnetic bucket constructed from strong samarium cobalt permanent magnets now confines a 10 m${}^3$, fully ionized, magnetic-field free plasma in a spherical geometry. Plasma parameters of $T_e\approx 5$ to $20$ eV and $n_e\approx 10^{11}$ to $5\times 10^{12}$ cm${}^{-3}$ provide an ideal testbed for a range of astrophysical experiments including self-exciting dynamos, collisionless magnetic reconnection, jet stability, stellar winds, and more. This article describes the capabilities of WiPAL along with several experiments, in both operating and planning stages, that illustrate the range of possibilities for future users.

21 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (32)

• Ages for illustrative field stars using gyrochronology: viability, limitations and errors
• Time-dependent force-free pulsar magnetospheres: axisymmetric and oblique rotators
• Helioseismology
• Simulations of small-scale turbulent dynamo
• Generation of magnetic field by dynamo action in a turbulent flow of liquid sodium
• The Mass-Dependence of Angular Momentum Evolution in Sun-Like Stars
• Magnetic Helicity Conservation and Astrophysical Dynamos
• On Why Disks Generate Magnetic Towers and Collimate Jets
• Phase Diagram for Magnetic Reconnection in Heliophysical, Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas
• Ab-initio pulsar magnetosphere: three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of axisymmetric pulsars
• Numerical demonstration of fluctuation dynamo at low magnetic Prandtl numbers
• Experimental Identification of the Kink Instability as a Poloidal Flux Amplification Mechanism for Coaxial Gun Spheromak Formation
• A Laboratory Plasma Experiment for Studying Magnetic Dynamics of Accretion Discs and Jets
• Modeling the Large Scale Structures of Astrophysical Jets in the Magnetically Dominated Limit
• On the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity
• Centrifugal Breakout of Magnetically Confined Line-Driven Stellar Winds
• Gyroscopic Pumping in the Solar Near-Surface Shear Layer
• Turbulent Dynamos and Magnetic Helicity
• Catastrophic alpha quenching alleviated by helicity flux and shear
• Catastrophic quenching in alpha-Omega dynamos revisited
• Magnetic Helix Formation Driven by Keplerian Disk Rotation in an External Plasma Pressure --- The Initial Expansion Stage
• The Madison plasma dynamo experiment: a facility for studying laboratory plasma astrophysics
• Theory of magnetically powered jets
• MOST Observations of sigma Ori E: Challenging the Centrifugal Breakout Narrative
• A Spherical Plasma Dynamo Experiment
• Open and closed boundaries in large-scale convective dynamos
• Magnetic Flux Expulsion in the Powerful Superbubble Explosions and the Alpha-Omega Dynamo
• How astrophysical mean field dynamos can circumvent existing quenching constraints
• Laboratory Plasma Dynamos, Astrophysical Dynamos, and Magnetic Helicity Evolution
• Optimized boundary driven flows for dynamos in a sphere
• Resistive and ferritic-wall plasma dynamos in a sphere
• Fast dynamos in spherical boundary-driven flows

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Dynamo theories
• Magnetic reconnection in the era of exascale computing and multiscale experiments
• Classes of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulent decay
• Disruption of Alfvénic turbulence by magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma
• Advances in mean-field dynamo theory and applications to astrophysical turbulence
• Turbulent dynamo in a collisionless plasma
• Laboratory Space Physics: Investigating the Physics of Space Plasmas in the Laboratory
• Pressure-anisotropy-driven microturbulence and magnetic-field evolution in shearing, collisionless plasma
• A stringent limit on the amplitude of Alfvénic perturbations in high-beta low-collisionality plasmas
• The structure of a perturbed magnetic reconnection electron diffusion region
• Amplitude limits and nonlinear damping of shear-Alfvén waves in high-beta low-collisionality plasmas
• Weakly magnetized, Hall dominated plasma Couette flow
• Magnetized Plasma Target for Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion
• On the structure and statistical theory of turbulence of extended magnetohydrodynamics
• Laboratory verification of electron-scale reconnection regions modulated by a three-dimensional instability
• Regulation of the Normalized Rate of Driven Magnetic Reconnection through Shocked Flux Pileup
• Trade-off in perpendicular electric field control using negatively biased emissive end-electrodes
• Coexistence of weak and strong wave turbulence in incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics
• Plasmoid instability in the semi-collisional regime
• A new multi line-cusp magnetic field plasma device (MPD) with variable magnetic field for fundamental plasma studies
• Kinetic Simulations Verifying Reconnection Rates Measured in the Laboratory, Spanning the Ion-Coupled to Near Electron-Only Regimes
• Direction of cascades in a magnetofluid model with electron skin depth and ion sound Larmor radius scales
• Laminar and Turbulent Plasmoid Ejection in a Laboratory Parker Spiral Current Sheet
• Characterization of fast magnetosonic waves driven by compact toroid plasma injection along a magnetic field
• Formation of Transient High-$\beta$ Plasmas in a Magnetized, Weakly Collisional Regime
• Experimental observation of drift wave turbulence in an inhomogeneous six-pole cusp magnetic field of MPD
• Ion heating and flow driven by an Instability found in Plasma Couette Flow
• Plasma Flow Generation and Particle Acceleration from Expanding Magnetic Bubbles