Evidence of Branching Phenomena in Current-Driven Ionization Waves

This Letter reports the first fully consistent experimental observations of current-driven ionization waves conforming to the magnetohydrodynamic Rankine-Hugoniot model for hydromagnetic shocks. Detailed measurements of the thermodynamic and electrodynamic plasma state variables across the ionizatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2015-10, Vol.115 (17), p.175001-175001, Article 175001
Main Authors: Loebner, Keith T K, Underwood, Thomas C, Cappelli, Mark A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Coupling (molecular)
Deviation
Electrodynamics
Ionization waves
Mathematical models
Plasma accelerators
Three dimensional
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Summary:This Letter reports the first fully consistent experimental observations of current-driven ionization waves conforming to the magnetohydrodynamic Rankine-Hugoniot model for hydromagnetic shocks. Detailed measurements of the thermodynamic and electrodynamic plasma state variables across the ionization region confirm the existence of two types of waves, corresponding to the upper and lower solution branches of the Hugoniot curve. These waves are generated by pulsed currents in a coaxial gas-fed plasma accelerator. The coupling between the state variables of this complex, transient, three-dimensional system shows a remarkable quantitative agreement of less than 8% deviation from the quasisteady, one-dimensional theoretical model.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.175001