Shock Turbulence Interaction with Plasma Viscosity

Plasma viscosity is a strong function of the background temperature. In strong shocks, the temperature of the plasma can increase immensely. We investigate how turbulence in a plasma may be dissipated under consideration of these combined effects, as was previously found for the case of a turbulent plasma undergoing metric compression. When the net increase of viscosity is not strong, nonunique outcomes of final turbulent energy under multiple shocks are also considered.

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344. This work was also supported by U.S. DOE DE-AC02- 09CH1146.