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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/37400
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Record Id 37400
Title Colliding blast waves driven by the interaction of a short-pulse laser with a gas of atomic clusters
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Abstract Collisions between shocks are commonly found in many astrophysical objects, however robust numerical models or laboratory analogues of these complex systems remain challenging to implement. We report on the development of scaled laboratory experiments which employ new techniques for launching and diagnosing colliding shocks and high Mach number blast waves, scalable to a limited subset of astrophysically-relevant regimes. Use of an extended medium of atomic clusters enables efficient (> 80%) coupling of 700 fs, 1 J, 1054 nm laser pulses to a "cluster" gas with an average density of > 10(19) particles cm(-3), producing an initial energy density >(105) J cm(-3), equivalent to approximate to 5x10(9) J/g. Multiple laser foci are used to tailor the spatial profile of energy deposition, or to launch pairs of counter-propagating cylindrical shocks which then collide. By probing the collision interferometrically at multiple view angles in 5 degrees increments and applying an inverse Radon transform to the resulting phase projections we have been able to tomographicall reconstruct the full three-dimensional, time-framed electron density profile of the system.
Organisation CCLRC , CLF
Keywords laboratory astrophysics , radon transform , tomography , blast wave collision , atomic clusters , lasers , hydrodynamics , instabilities , plasmas , radiative transfer , shock waves , supernova remnants , CLF 2006-2007
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Language English (EN)
Type Details URI(s) Local file(s) Year
Journal Article Astrophys Space Sci 307, no. 1-3 (2007): 131-137. doi:10.1007/s10509-006-9260-3 2007