Propagation of Electron Magnetohydrodynamic structures in a 2-D inhomogeneous plasma

TL;DR

This paper derives 3D EMHD equations for inhomogeneous plasmas, reduces them to 2D, and uses simulations to reveal a novel trapping effect of magnetic structures in high-density regions, relevant to hot spot generation.

Contribution

It introduces the fully 3D EMHD equations for inhomogeneous plasmas and demonstrates a new magnetic trapping phenomenon through 2D simulations.

Findings

Discovery of magnetic dipolar structure trapping in high-density plasma regions

Simulation results showing propagation behavior of EMHD structures in inhomogeneous plasma

Relevance of trapping effect to hot spot generation in fast ignition

Abstract

The fully three dimensional governing equations in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) regime for a plasma with inhomogeneous density is obtained. These equations in the two dimensional (2-D) limit can be cast in terms of the evolution of two coupled scalar fields. The nonlinear simulations for the two dimensional case are carried out to understand the propagation of EMHD magnetic structures in the presence of inhomogeneity. A novel effect related to trapping of dipolar magnetic structures in the high density plasma region in the EMHD regime is observed. The interpretation of this phenomena as well as its relevance to the problem of hot spot generation in the context of fast ignition is presented.