arXiv subjects

E. C. Hansen

Publications and source records attributed to E. C. Hansen.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Hall-MHD in driven turbulence FLASH simulations

The origin of magnetic fields in turbulent astrophysical systems has long been a central problem in plasma astrophysics. Fluctuation dynamos are a class of field amplification mechanisms that occur in turbulent magnetohydrodynamics whereby stochastically forced motions of plasma at sufficiently high magnetic Reynolds numbers exponentially amplify magnetic energy. For steady forcing, such dynamos saturate with magnetic energies at a sizable fraction of the turbulent kinetic energy. Although fluctuation dynamo is widely studied within the framework of resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and driven-turbulence numerical simulations, this work explores the difference when the Hall term is included in the magneto-fluid's generalized Ohm's law. The inclusion is motivated in part by recent high energy-density plasma experiments studying fluctuation dynamo that are governed by an extended magnetohydrodynamics (xMHD) ansatz, which includes the Hall term. We first discuss the details of the Hall-MHD implementation in the FLASH code, the tool we use to model xMHD fluctuation dynamo. We then investigate the influence of the Hall term on the fluctuation dynamo in a three-dimensional periodic box, driven with stochastic forcing at the box scale. We compare cases with a Hall term of varying magnitude to no-Hall cases with respect to the magnetic field growth rate, saturation level, and magnetic field structure. The Hall-MHD fluctuation dynamo is found to saturate at lower magnetic energies and with fewer small-scale magnetic structures than the no-Hall cases. Both findings are consistent with the interpretation that the Hall term acts as an additional, non-linear transport term, akin to an enhanced turbulent diffusivity.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Exploring the Physics of the Plasma Liner Experiment: A Multi-dimensional Study with FLASH, OSIRIS, and HELIOS

The Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a platform that seeks to achieve fusion via the Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion (PJMIF) concept. The experiment utilizes a constellation of plasma guns to generate fusion-relevant conditions and consists of three main phases: (1) target formation, in which up to four plasma guns shoot magnetized hydrogen or deuterium-tritium jets to form a quasi-spherical target, (2) liner formation, in which a 36 guns fire high-atomic-number (e.g., xenon) jets to form a liner shell, and (3) target compression, in which the formed liner implodes the pre-formed target. Each phase of the PLX operates in different plasma regimes, with different physics at play, thus each phase must be simulated separately with appropriate codes. In this study we highlight 1-, 2-, and 3-D simulation results of all three phases using the FLASH, OSIRIS, and HELIOS codes. Some of the key physical processes involved include shock dynamics, kinetic effects, anisotropic thermal conduction, resistive magnetic diffusion, radiation transport, and magnetized jet dynamics. The simulations show that the PLX can form a preheated ($\sim$40 eV), magnetized (electron Hall parameter $>$1) target plasma, and a quasi-collisional liner shell, which can subsequently compress the target to fusion-relevant conditions, reaching temperatures in excess of 1 keV.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Shock Wave Formation in Radiative Plasmas

The temporal evolution of weak shocks in radiative media is theoretically investigated in this work. The structure of radiative shocks has traditionally been studied in a stationary framework. Their systematic classification is complex because layers of optically thin and thick regions alternate to form a radiatively-driven precursor and a temperature-relaxation layer, between which the hydrodynamic shock is embedded. In this work, we analyze the formation of weak shocks when two radiative plasmas with different pressures are put in contact. Applying a reductive perturbative method yields a Burgers-type equation that governs the temporal evolution of the perturbed variables including the radiation field. The conditions upon which optically thin and thick solutions exist have been derived and expressed as a function of the shock strength and Boltzmann number. Below a certain Boltzmann number threshold, weak shocks always become optically thick asymptotically in time, while thin solutions appear as transitory structures. The existence of an optically thin regime is related to the presence of an overdense layer in the compressed material. Scaling laws for the characteristic formation time and shock width are provided for each regime. The theoretical analysis is supported by FLASH simulations, and a comprehensive test-case has been designed to benchmark radiative hydrodynamic codes.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Diagnosing Magnetic Fields in Cylindrical Implosions with Oblique Proton Radiography

Two experiments on the OMEGA Laser System used oblique proton radiography to measure magnetic fields in cylindrical implosions with and without an applied axial magnetic field. Although the goal of both experiments was to measure the magnitude of the compressed axial magnetic field in the core of the implosion, this field was obfuscated by two features in the coronal plasma produced by the compression beams: an azimuthal self-generated magnetic field and small length scale, high-amplitude structures attributed to collisionless effects. In order to understand these features, synthetic radiographs are generated using fields produced by 3-D HYDRA simulations. These synthetic radiographs reproduce the features of the experimental radiographs with the exception of the small-scale structures. A direct inversion algorithm is successfully applied to a synthetic radiograph, but is only partially able to invert the experimental radiographs in part because some protons are blocked by the field coils. The origins of the radiograph features and their dependence on various experimental parameters are explored. The results of this analysis should inform future measurements of compressed axial magnetic fields in cylindrical implosions.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Impact of Electron Transport Models on Capillary Discharge Plasmas

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be used to model capillary discharge waveguides in laser-wakefield accelerators. However, the predictive capability of MHD can suffer due to poor microscopic closure models. Here, we study the impact of electron heating and thermal conduction on capillary waveguide performance as part of an effort to understand and quantify uncertainties in modeling and designing next-generation plasma accelerators. To do so, we perform two-dimensional high-resolution MHD simulations using an argon-filled capillary discharge waveguide with three different electron transport coefficients models. The models tested include (i) Davies et al. (ii) Spitzer, and (iii) Epperlein-Haines (EH). We found that the EH model overestimates the electron temperature inside the channel by over $20\%$ while predicting a lower azimuthal magnetic field. Moreover, the Spitzer model, often used in MHD simulations for plasma-based accelerators, predicts a significantly higher electron temperature than the other models suggest.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Simulating Radiative Magnetohydrodynamical Flows with AstroBEAR: Implementation and Applications of Non-equilibrium Cooling

Radiative cooling plays a crucial role in the dynamics of many astrophysical flows, and is particularly important in the dense shocked gas within Herbig-Haro (HH) objects and stellar jets. Simulating cooling processes accurately is necessary to compare numerical simulations with existing and planned observations of HH objects, such as those from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. In this paper we discuss a new, non-equilibrium cooling scheme we have implemented into the 3-D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code AstroBEAR. The new cooling function includes ionization, recombination, and excitation of all the important atomic species that cool below 10000 K. We tested the routine by comparing its predictions with those from the well-tested 1-D Cox-Raymond shock code (Raymond 1979). The results show thatAstroBEAR accurately tracks the ionization fraction, temperature, and other MHD variables for all low-velocity (.90 km/s) magnetized radiative shock waves. The new routine allows us to predict synthetic emission maps in all the bright forbidden and permitted lines observed in stellar jets, including Hα, [NII], [OI], and [SII]. We present an example as to how these synthetic maps facilitate a direct comparison with narrowband images of HH objects.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

The Shock Dynamics of Heterogeneous YSO Jets: 3-D Simulations Meet Multi-Epoch Observations

High resolution observations of Young Stellar Object (YSO) jets show them to be composed of many small-scale knots or clumps. In this paper we report results of 3-D numerical simulations designed to study how such clumps interact and create morphologies and kinematic patterns seen in emission line observations. Our simulations focus on clump scale dynamics by imposing velocity differences between spherical, over-dense regions which then lead to the formation of bow shocks as faster clumps overtake slower material. We show that much of the spatial structure apparent in emission line images of jets arises from the dynamics and interactions of these bow shocks. Our simulations show a variety of time-dependent features, including bright knots associated with Mach stems where the shocks intersect, a "frothy" emission structure that arises from the presence of the Non-linear Thin Shell Instability (NTSI) along the surfaces of the bow shocks, and the merging and fragmentation of clumps. Our simulations use a new non-equilibrium cooling method to produce synthetic emission maps in H$α$ and [S II]. These are directly compared with multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of Herbig-Haro (HH) jets. We find excellent agreement between features seen in the simulations and the observations in terms of both proper motion and morphologies. Thus we conclude that YSO jets may be dominated by heterogeneous structures and that interactions between these structures and the shocks they produce can account for many details of YSO jet evolution.

astro-ph.HE↗