Investigations of the physical nature of the emergence and spread of relativistic astrophysical jets

Abstract

A series of experiments were carried out at the TSNIIMASH laser facility “Neodym” with a radiation power of 10 TW and an intensity of [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]W/cm2 to simulate the formation and development of astrophysical relativistic jets. It was shown that proton beams are emitted symmetrically in the forward and backward directions to the normal of the target surface. The maximum energy of fast protons and electrons was 5 and 8[Formula: see text]MeV, respectively. At energies in the 0.8–1.7[Formula: see text]MeV range, the ring structures of proton beams are clearly distinguishable with an angular divergence in the range of 3–250. The numerical magnetohydrodynamic calculations have shown that such laboratory experiments can simulate the formation of astrophysical jets with an anomalously small divergence. Moreover, such a plasma stream can form a distinct circular structure. These structures also can be explained as Alfven vortex solitons formed under the conditions of a quasi-stationary superstrong ([Formula: see text]100 MG) magnetic field spontaneously generated in laser produced plasma. It is shown that this model can be used as a model of astrophysical relativistic jets.