NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF Z-PINCH EXPERIMENTS TO CREATE SUPERSONIC DIFFERENTIALLY ROTATING PLASMA FLOWS

Abstract

Abstract. In the context of high energy density laboratory astrophysics, we aim to produce and study a rotating plasma relevant to accre-tion discs physics. We devised an experimental setup based on a mo-dified cylindrical wire array and we studied it numerically with the three-dimensional, resistive magneto-hydrodynamic code GORGON. The simulations show that a rotating plasma cylinder is formed, with typical rotation velocity ∼35 km/s and Mach number ∼5. In addi-tion, the plasma ring is differentially rotating and strongly radiatively cooled. The introduction of external magnetic fields is discussed. 1