Magnetic field advection in two interpenetrating plasma jets

Two laser-generated colliding jets can serve as a test-bed for the study of various astrophysical phenomena [1] and the general physics of self-organization [2]. For jets of a sufficiently high energy, collisions of the ions of one jet with the ions of the other jet are negligible, and the jets can penetrate through each other [1, 3]. On the other hand, the intra-jet collisions for high-Mach-number jets can be very frequent, so that each jet can be described by hydrodynamic equations [4]. We present an analytical study of the effects of this flow on large-scale magnetic fields either imposed by external sources or generated near the laser targets. Specifically, we consider an issue of the line tying (``Which jet is the magnetic field frozen into?''), possible stretching of the field by a shear flow, and the potential effect of hydrodynamic instabilities on the magnetic field. Work performed for U.S. DoE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.[4pt] [1] H. S. Park et al, HEDP, 8, 38 (2011).[0pt] [2] N.L. Kugland et al, submitted to Nature-Physics (2012).[0pt] [3] J.S. Ross et al, Phys. Plas., 19, 056501 (2012).[0pt] [4] D.D. Ryutov et al, Phys. Plas., 19, 074501 (2012).