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Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Synthesis and Microdiffraction at Extreme Pressures and Temperatures
Published on: October 7, 2013
Laboratory Resolved Structure of Supercritical Perpendicular Shocks
Douglass Endrizzi1, J Egedal1, M Clark1
1Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
Abstract:
Supermagnetosonic perpendicular flows are magnetically driven by a large radius theta-pinch experiment. Fine spatial resolution and macroscopic coverage allow the full structure of the plasma-piston coupling to be resolved in laboratory experiment for the first time. A moving ambipolar potential is observed to reflect unmagnetized ions to twice the piston speed. Magnetized electrons balance the radial potential via Hall currents and generate signature quadrupolar magnetic fields. Electron heating in the reflected ion foot is adiabatic.
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