Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet
The remarkable discovery by the Chandra X-ray observatory that the Crab nebula’s jet periodically changes direction provides a challenge to our understanding of astrophysical jet dynamics. It has been suggested that this phenomenon may be the consequence of magnetic fields and magnetohydrodynamic in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108277 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6919-4881 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4969-5571 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7274-236X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0489-7479 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1020-3501 |
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| author | Tzeferacos, P. Lamb, D. Gregori, G. Norreys, P. A. Follett, R. K. Froula, D. H. Koenig, M. Amendt, P. A. Park, H. S. Remington, B. A. Ryutov, D. D. Wilks, S. C. Betti, R. Frank, A. Hu, S. X. Sangster, T. C. Hartigan, P. Drake, R. P. Kuranz, C. C. Lebedev, S. V. Woolsey, N. C. Li, Chikang Rosenberg, Michael Jonathan Frenje, Johan A Rinderknecht, Hans George Sio, Hong Weng Zylstra, Alex Bennett Petrasso, Richard D Seguin, Fredrick Hampton |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Tzeferacos, P. Lamb, D. Gregori, G. Norreys, P. A. Follett, R. K. Froula, D. H. Koenig, M. Amendt, P. A. Park, H. S. Remington, B. A. Ryutov, D. D. Wilks, S. C. Betti, R. Frank, A. Hu, S. X. Sangster, T. C. Hartigan, P. Drake, R. P. Kuranz, C. C. Lebedev, S. V. Woolsey, N. C. Li, Chikang Rosenberg, Michael Jonathan Frenje, Johan A Rinderknecht, Hans George Sio, Hong Weng Zylstra, Alex Bennett Petrasso, Richard D Seguin, Fredrick Hampton |
| author_sort | Tzeferacos, P. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The remarkable discovery by the Chandra X-ray observatory that the Crab nebula’s jet periodically changes direction provides a challenge to our understanding of astrophysical jet dynamics. It has been suggested that this phenomenon may be the consequence of magnetic fields and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, but experimental demonstration in a controlled laboratory environment has remained elusive. Here we report experiments that use high-power lasers to create a plasma jet that can be directly compared with the Crab jet through well-defined physical scaling laws. The jet generates its own embedded toroidal magnetic fields; as it moves, plasma instabilities result in multiple deflections of the
propagation direction, mimicking the kink behaviour of the Crab jet. The experiment is modelled with three-dimensional numerical simulations that show exactly how the instability develops and results in changes of direction of the jet. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:48:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/108277 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:48:19Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1082772022-09-23T14:40:30Z Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet Tzeferacos, P. Lamb, D. Gregori, G. Norreys, P. A. Follett, R. K. Froula, D. H. Koenig, M. Amendt, P. A. Park, H. S. Remington, B. A. Ryutov, D. D. Wilks, S. C. Betti, R. Frank, A. Hu, S. X. Sangster, T. C. Hartigan, P. Drake, R. P. Kuranz, C. C. Lebedev, S. V. Woolsey, N. C. Li, Chikang Rosenberg, Michael Jonathan Frenje, Johan A Rinderknecht, Hans George Sio, Hong Weng Zylstra, Alex Bennett Petrasso, Richard D Seguin, Fredrick Hampton Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center Li, Chikang Rosenberg, Michael Jonathan Frenje, Johan A Rinderknecht, Hans George Sio, Hong Weng Zylstra, Alex Bennett Petrasso, Richard D Seguin, Fredrick Hampton The remarkable discovery by the Chandra X-ray observatory that the Crab nebula’s jet periodically changes direction provides a challenge to our understanding of astrophysical jet dynamics. It has been suggested that this phenomenon may be the consequence of magnetic fields and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, but experimental demonstration in a controlled laboratory environment has remained elusive. Here we report experiments that use high-power lasers to create a plasma jet that can be directly compared with the Crab jet through well-defined physical scaling laws. The jet generates its own embedded toroidal magnetic fields; as it moves, plasma instabilities result in multiple deflections of the propagation direction, mimicking the kink behaviour of the Crab jet. The experiment is modelled with three-dimensional numerical simulations that show exactly how the instability develops and results in changes of direction of the jet. United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-FG03-09NA29553) United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0007168) University of Rochester. Laboratory for Laser Energetics (414090-G) National Laser User’s Facility (DE-NA0000877) University of Rochester. Fusion Science Center (415023-G) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (B580243) 2017-04-19T20:17:39Z 2017-04-19T20:17:39Z 2016-10 2016-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108277 Li, C. K. et al. “Scaled Laboratory Experiments Explain the Kink Behaviour of the Crab Nebula Jet.” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 13081. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6919-4881 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4969-5571 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7274-236X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0489-7479 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1020-3501 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13081 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature |
| spellingShingle | Tzeferacos, P. Lamb, D. Gregori, G. Norreys, P. A. Follett, R. K. Froula, D. H. Koenig, M. Amendt, P. A. Park, H. S. Remington, B. A. Ryutov, D. D. Wilks, S. C. Betti, R. Frank, A. Hu, S. X. Sangster, T. C. Hartigan, P. Drake, R. P. Kuranz, C. C. Lebedev, S. V. Woolsey, N. C. Li, Chikang Rosenberg, Michael Jonathan Frenje, Johan A Rinderknecht, Hans George Sio, Hong Weng Zylstra, Alex Bennett Petrasso, Richard D Seguin, Fredrick Hampton Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title | Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title_full | Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title_fullStr | Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title_short | Scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the Crab Nebula jet |
| title_sort | scaled laboratory experiments explain the kink behaviour of the crab nebula jet |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108277 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6919-4881 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4969-5571 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7274-236X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0489-7479 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1020-3501 |
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