Engineering topics

Blackman, Eric G.

Publications and source records attributed to Blackman, Eric G..

10 records

DOE OSTI2024

Helical dynamo growth and saturation at modest versus extreme magnetic Reynolds numbers

Understanding magnetic field growth in astrophysical objects is a persistent challenge. In stars and galaxies, turbulent flows with net kinetic helicity are believed to be responsible for driving large-scale magnetic fields. However, numerical simulations have demonstrated that such helical dynamos in closed volumes saturate at lower magnetic field strengths when increasing the magnetic Reynolds number Rm . This would imply that helical large-scale dynamos cannot be efficient in astrophysical bodies without the help of helicity outflows such as stellar winds. But do these implications actually apply for very large Rm ? Here we tackle the long-standing question of how much helical large-scale dynamo growth occurs independent of Rm in a closed volume. We analyze data from numerical simulations with a new method that tracks resistive versus nonresistive drivers of helical field growth. We identify a presaturation regime when the large-scale field grows at a rate independent of Rm , but to an Rm -dependent magnitude. The latter Rm dependence is due to a dominant resistive contribution, but whose fractional contribution to the large-scale magnetic energy decreases with increasing Rm . We argue that the resistive contribution would become negligible at large Rm and an Rm -independent dynamical contribution would dominate if the current helicity spectrum in the inertial range is steeper than k 0 . As such helicity spectra are plausible, this renews optimism for the relevance of closed dynamos. Our work pinpoints how modest Rm simulations can cause misapprehension of the Rm → ∞ behavior. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Ion and Electron Acoustic Bursts during Anti-Parallel Reconnection Driven by Lasers

Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy in plasma. Among the numerous candidate mechanisms, ion acoustic instabilities driven by the relative drift between ions and electrons (or equivalently, electric current) have been suggested to play a critical role in dissipating magnetic energy in collisionless plasmas. However, their existence and effectiveness during reconnection have not been well understood due to ion Landau damping and difficulties in resolving the Debye length scale in the laboratory. We report a sudden onset of ion acoustic bursts measured by collective Thomson scattering in the exhaust of anti-parallel magnetically driven reconnection using high-power lasers. The ion acoustic bursts are followed by electron acoustic bursts with electron heating and bulk acceleration. We reproduce these observations with one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in which an electron outflow jet drives ion acoustic instabilities, forming double layers. These layers induce electron two-stream instabilities that generate electron acoustic bursts and energize electrons. Our results demonstrate the importance of ion and electron acoustic dynamics during reconnection when ion Landau damping is ineffective, a condition applicable to a range of astrophysical plasmas including near-Earth space, stellar flares and black hole accretion engines.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Non-thermal electron acceleration from magnetically driven reconnection in a laboratory plasma

Magnetic reconnection rapidly converts magnetic energy into some combination of plasma flow energy, thermal energy and non-thermal energetic particles. Various reconnection acceleration mechanisms have been theoretically proposed and numerically studied in different collisionless and low-β environments, where β refers to the plasma-to-magnetic pressure ratio. These mechanisms include Fermi acceleration, betatron acceleration, parallel electric field acceleration along magnetic fields and direct acceleration by the reconnection electric field. However, none of them have been experimentally confirmed, as the direct observation of non-thermal particle acceleration in laboratory experiments has been difficult due to short Debye lengths for in situ measurements and short mean free paths for ex situ measurements. Here we report the direct measurement of accelerated non-thermal electrons from magnetically driven reconnection at low β in experiments using a laser-powered capacitor coil platform. We use kilojoule lasers to drive parallel currents to reconnect megagauss-level magnetic fields in a quasi-axisymmetric geometry. The angular dependence of the measured electron energy spectrum and the resulting accelerated energies, supported by particle-in-cell simulations, indicate that the mechanism of direct electric field acceleration by the out-of-plane reconnection electric field is at work. Scaled energies using this mechanism show direct relevance to astrophysical observations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Pre-planetary nebulae: a context for principles, progress, and questions on how binaries and magnetic fields produce jets

Astrophysical outflows treated initially as spherically symmetric often show evidence for asymmetry once seen at higher resolution. The preponderance of aspherical and multipolar planetary nebulae (PN) and pre-planetary nebulae (PPN) was evident after many observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Binary interactions have long been thought to be essential for shaping asymmetric PN/PPN, but how? PPN are the more kinematically demanding of the two, and warrant particular focus. I address how progress from observation and theory suggests two broad classes of accretion driven PPN jets: one for wider binaries (PPN-W) where the companion is outside the outer radius of the giant and accretes via Roche lobe overflow, and the other which occurs in the later stages of CE for close binaries (PPN-C). Furthermore, the physics within these scenarios connects to progress and open questions about the role and origin of magnetic fields in the engines and in astrophysical jets more generally.

(ISM:) planetary nebulae: general↗

DOE OSTI2022

Persistent mysteries of jet engines, formation, propagation, and particle acceleration: Have they been addressed experimentally?

Here, the physics of astrophysical jets can be divided into three regimes: (i) engine and launch (ii) propagation and collimation, (iii) dissipation and particle acceleration. Since astrophysical jets comprise a huge range of scales and phenomena, practicality dictates that most studies of jets intentionally or inadvertently focus on one of these regimes, and even therein, one body of work may be simply boundary condition for another. We first discuss long standing persistent mysteries that pertain the physics of each of these regimes, independent of the method used to study them. This discussion makes contact with frontiers of plasma astrophysics more generally. While observations theory, and simulations, and have long been the main tools of the trade, what about laboratory experiments? Jet related experiments have offered controlled studies of specific principles, physical processes, and benchmarks for numerical and theoretical calculations. We discuss what has been accomplished on these fronts. Although experiments have indeed helped us to understand certain processes, proof of principle concepts, and benchmarked codes, they have yet to solved an astrophysical jet mystery on their own. A challenge is that experimental tools used for jet-related experiments so far, are typically not machines originally designed for that purpose, or designed with specific astrophysical mysteries in mind. This presents an opportunity for a different way of thinking about the development of future platforms: start with the astrophysical mystery and build an experiment to address it.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

On the shear-current effect: toward understanding why theories and simulations have mutually and separately conflicted

ABSTRACT The shear-current effect (SCE) of mean-field dynamo theory refers to the combination of a shear flow and a turbulent coefficient β21 with a favourable negative sign for exponential mean-field growth, rather than positive for diffusion. There have been long-standing disagreements among theoretical calculations and comparisons of theory with numerical experiments as to the sign of kinetic ($\beta ^u_{21}$) and magnetic ($\beta ^b_{21}$) contributions. To resolve these discrepancies, we combine an analytical approach with simulations, and show that unlike $\beta ^b_{21}$, the kinetic SCE $\beta ^u_{21}$ has a strong dependence on the kinetic energy spectral index and can transit from positive to negative values at $\mathcal {O}(10)$ Reynolds numbers if the spectrum is not too steep. Conversely, $\beta ^b_{21}$ is always negative regardless of the spectral index and Reynolds numbers. For very steep energy spectra, the positive $\beta ^u_{21}$ can dominate even at energy equipartition urms ≃ brms, resulting in a positive total β21 even though $\beta ^b_{21}\lt 0$. Our findings bridge the gap between the seemingly contradictory results from the second-order-correlation approximation versus the spectral-τ closure, for which opposite signs for $\beta ^u_{21}$ have been reported, with the same sign for $\beta ^b_{21}\lt 0$. The results also offer an explanation for the simulations that find $\beta ^u_{21}\gt 0$ and an inconclusive overall sign of β21 for $\mathcal {O}(10)$ Reynolds numbers. The transient behaviour of $\beta ^u_{21}$ is demonstrated using the kinematic test-field method. We compute dynamo growth rates for cases with or without rotation, and discuss opportunities for further work.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Influence of inhomogeneous stochasticity on the falsifiability of mean-field theories and examples from accretion disc modelling

ABSTRACT Despite spatial and temporal fluctuations in turbulent astrophysical systems, mean-field theories can be used to describe their secular evolution. However, observations taken over time scales much shorter than dynamical time scales capture a system in a single state of its turbulence ensemble. Comparing with mean-field theory can falsify the latter only if the theory is additionally supplied with a quantified precision. The central limit theorem provides appropriate estimates to the precision only when fluctuations contribute linearly to an observable and with constant coherent scales. Here, we introduce an error propagation formula that relaxes both limitations, allowing for non-linear functional forms of observables and inhomogeneous coherent scales and amplitudes of fluctuations. The method is exemplified in the context of accretion disc theories, where inhomogeneous fluctuations in the surface temperature are propagated to the disc emission spectrum – the latter being a non-linear and non-local function of the former. The derived precision depends non-monotonically on emission frequency. Using the same method, we investigate how binned spectral fluctuations in telescope data change with the spectral resolving power. We discuss the broader implications for falsifiability of a mean-field theory.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Scaling of Turbulent Viscosity and Resistivity: Extracting a Scale-dependent Turbulent Magnetic Prandtl Number

Turbulent viscosity νt and resistivity ηt are perhaps the simplest models for turbulent transport of angular momentum and magnetic fields, respectively. The associated turbulent magnetic Prandtl number Pr t ≡ ν t /η t has been well recognized to determine the final magnetic configuration of accretion disks. Here, we present an approach to determining these "effective transport" coefficients acting at different length scales using coarse-graining and recent results on decoupled kinetic and magnetic energy cascades. By analyzing the kinetic and magnetic energy cascades from a suite of high-resolution simulations, we show that our definitions of ν t , η t , and Pr t have power-law scalings in the "decoupled range." We observe that Pr t ≈ 1–2 at the smallest inertial-inductive scales, increasing to ≈5 at the largest scales. Furthermore, based on physical considerations, our analysis suggests that Pr t has to become scale independent and of order unity in the decoupled range at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers (or grid resolution) and that the power-law scaling exponents of velocity and magnetic spectra become equal. In addition to implications for astrophysical systems, the scale-dependent turbulent transport coefficients offer a guide for large-eddy simulation modeling.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Bipolar planetary nebulae from outflow collimation by common envelope evolution

ABSTRACT The morphology of bipolar planetary nebulae (PNe) can be attributed to interactions between a fast wind from the central engine and the dense toroidal-shaped ejecta left over from common envelope (CE) evolution. Here we use the 3D hydrodynamic adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code AstroBEAR to study the possibility that bipolar PN outflows can emerge collimated even from an uncollimated spherical wind in the aftermath of a CE event. The output of a single CE simulation via the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code phantom serves as the initial conditions. Four cases of winds, all with high enough momenta to account for observed high momenta pre-PN outflows, are injected spherically from the region of the CE binary remnant into the ejecta. We compare cases with two different momenta and cases with no radiative cooling versus application of optically thin emission via a cooling curve to the outflow. Our simulations show that in all cases highly collimated bipolar outflows result from deflection of the spherical wind via the interaction with the CE ejecta. Significant asymmetries between the top and bottom lobes are seen in all cases. The asymmetry is strongest for the lower momentum case with radiative cooling. While real post-CE winds may be aspherical, our models show that collimation via ‘inertial confinement’ will be strong enough to create jet-like outflows even beginning with maximally uncollimated drivers. Our simulations reveal detailed shock structures in the shock-focused inertial confinement (SFIC) model and develop a lens-shaped inner shock that is a new feature of SFIC-driven bipolar lobes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2003

X-ray Emission from the Pre-planetary Nebula Henize 3-1475

We report the first detection of X-ray emission in a pre-planetary nebula, He 3-1475. Pre-planetary nebulae are rare objects in the short transition stage between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and planetary nebula evolutionary phases, and He 3-1475, characterized by a remarkable S-shaped chain of optical knots, is one of the most noteworthy members of this class. Observations with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory show the presence of compact emission coincident with the brightest optical knot in this bipolar object, which is displaced from the central star by 2'.7 along the polar axis. Model fits to the X-ray spectrum indicate an X-ray temperature and luminosity, respectively, of (4.3-5.7) x 10(exp 6) K and (4 +/- 1.4) x 10(exp 31) (D/5 kpc)(exp 2) ergs s(exp -1) respectively. Our 3 sigma upper limit on the luminosity of compact X-ray emission from the central star in He 3-1475 is approximately equal to 5 x 10(exp 31) (D/5 kpc)(exp 2) ergs s(exp -1). The detection of X-rays in He 3-1475 is consistent with models in which fast collimated post-AGB outflows are crucial to the shaping of nebulae; we discuss such models in the context of our observations.

circumstellar matter↗