Magnetic Reconnection & Particle

[HEDS13-01(Invited)] Structure of Reverse Shocks and Radiative Cooling Effects in High Energy Density Plasma Experiments

*S. Merlini¹, J.D. Hare², G.C. Burdiak³, J.W.D. Halliday⁴, A. Ciardi⁵, J.P. Chittenden¹, A.J. Crilly¹, K. Marrow¹, D.R. Russell¹, L. G. Suttle¹, E.R. Tubman¹, V. Valenzuela-Villaseca⁶, T.W.O. Varnish², S. V. Lebedev¹ (1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, 2. Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, 3. First Light Fusion Ltd., Yarnton, Kidlington, United Kingdom, 4. Atomic and Laser Physics Group, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, 5. Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, France, 6. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, USA)

Accretion shocks, common in many astrophysical systems, can be significantly influenced by radiative cooling effects, resulting in instabilities and turbulence. This study investigates accretion shock experiments at the MAGPIE pulsed power facility using two different approaches. The first approach examines reverse shocks resulting from the collision of supersonic, magnetized plasma flows produced by an inverse wire array interacting with a planar conducting obstacle. The second approach involves the ablation of solid targets by X-ray radiation from a Z-pinch wire array.