Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity

Ma Zuolin; Ping Yongli; Zhong Jiayong

doi:10.1063/5.0275550

Volume 11 Issue 2

Mar. 2026

Turn off MathJax

Article Contents

Article Navigation > Matter and Radiation at Extremes > 2026 > 11(2): 025601

Ma Zuolin, Ping Yongli, Zhong Jiayong. Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(2): 025601. doi: 10.1063/5.0275550

Citation:

Ma Zuolin, Ping Yongli, Zhong Jiayong. Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(2): 025601. doi: 10.1063/5.0275550

Ma Zuolin, Ping Yongli, Zhong Jiayong. Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(2): 025601. doi: 10.1063/5.0275550

Citation:

Ma Zuolin, Ping Yongli, Zhong Jiayong. Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(2): 025601. doi: 10.1063/5.0275550

PDF( 5029 KB)

Impact pressure shaping plasma jets and affected by high metallicity

doi: 10.1063/5.0275550

Ma Zuolin^{1, 2
,},
Ping Yongli^{2, 3
,
,
,},
Zhong Jiayong^{1, 2, 3
,
,
,}

1.
School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, China
3.
Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

More Information

Corresponding author: a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: ylping@bnu.edu.cn and jyzhong@bnu.edu.cn
Received Date: 2025-04-14
Accepted Date: 2025-12-02

Available Online: 2026-05-11

Publish Date: 2026-03-01

Abstract

Abstract

High-Mach-number plasma jets have been extensively investigated in both astrophysical and laboratory contexts. In this work, we revisit the framework of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory and introduce a new analytical approach for examining plasma jets generated by intense laser–plasma interactions. Specifically, we reformulate the fundamental MHD equations to elucidate the governing factors of local plasma density evolution. Furthermore, MHD simulations of laser irradiation on planar targets demonstrate that impact pressure plays a dominant role in the propagation of high-Mach-number plasma jets. In addition, a pronounced dependence on the atomic number is identified: higher-Z materials amplify the impact pressure, suggesting that metallicity exerts a significant influence on the morphology and dynamics of astrophysical jets.

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
Conflict of Interest
Author Contributions
Zuolin Ma: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (lead); Formal analysis (lead); Methodology (lead); Software (lead); Visualization (lead); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Yongli Ping: Conceptualization (equal); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Jiayong Zhong: Funding acquisition (lead); Writing – review & editing (equal).
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

FullText(HTML)

References(51)

References

[1]	L. Moscadelli, A. Sanna, R. Cesaroni, V. M. Rivilla, C. Goddi et al., “A 10-M⊙ YSO with a Keplerian disk and a nonthermal radio jet,” Astron. Astrophys. 622, A206 (2019).10.1051/0004-6361/201834366
[2]	B. Reipurth and S. Heathcote, “The jet and energy source of HH 46/47,” Astron. Astrophys. 246, 511–534 (1991).
[3]	A. Ciardi, T. Vinci, J. Fuchs, B. Albertazzi, C. Riconda et al., “Astrophysics of magnetically collimated jets generated from laser-produced plasmas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 025002 (2013).10.1103/physrevlett.110.025002
[4]	T. P. Ray and J. Ferreira, “Jets from young stars,” New Astron. Rev. 93, 101615 (2021).10.1016/j.newar.2021.101615
[5]	J. M. Blondin, B. A. Fryxell, and A. Konigl, “The structure and evolution of radiatively cooling jets,” Astrophys. J. 360, 370–386 (1990).10.1086/169128
[6]	J. M. Stone and M. L. Norman, “Numerical simulations of protostellar jets with nonequilibrium cooling. I—Method and two-dimensional results. II—Models of pulsed jets,” Astrophys. J. 413, 198–220 (1993).10.1086/172988
[7]	N. Lloyd-Ronning, V. U. Hurtado, A. Aykutalp, J. Johnson, and C. Ceccobello, “The evolution of gamma-ray burst jet opening angle through cosmic time,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 494, 4371–4381 (2020).10.1093/mnras/staa1057
[8]	C. Fendt, “Collimation of astrophysical jets: The role of the accretion disk magnetic field distribution,” Astrophys. J. 651, 272 (2006).10.1086/507976
[9]	L. Chen and B. Zhang, “Analytical solution of magnetically dominated astrophysical jets and winds: Jet launching, acceleration, and collimation,” Astrophys. J. 906, 105 (2021).10.3847/1538-4357/abc42d
[10]	S. S. Komissarov, “Ram-pressure confinement of extragalactic jets,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 266, 649–652 (1994).10.1093/mnras/266.3.649
[11]	P. K. Carroll and E. T. Kennedy, “Laser-produced plasmas,” Contemp. Phys. 22, 61–96 (1981).10.1080/00107518108231515
[12]	E. C. Merritt, A. L. Moser, S. C. Hsu, J. Loverich, and M. Gilmore, “Experimental characterization of the stagnation layer between two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 085003 (2013).10.1103/physrevlett.111.085003
[13]	S. C. Hsu, A. L. Moser, E. C. Merritt, C. S. Adams, J. P. Dunn et al., “Laboratory plasma physics experiments using merging supersonic plasma jets,” J. Plasma Phys. 81, 345810201 (2015).10.1017/s0022377814001184
[14]	D. R. Farley, K. G. Estabrook, S. G. Glendinning, S. H. Glenzer, B. A. Remington et al., “Radiative jet experiments of astrophysical interest using intense lasers,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1982 (1999).10.1103/physrevlett.83.1982
[15]	C. D. Gregory, A. Dizière, H. Aoki, H. Tanji, T. Ide et al., “Experiments to investigate the effects of radiative cooling on plasma jet collimation,” High Energy Density Phys. 11, 12–16 (2014).10.1016/j.hedp.2013.12.003
[16]	K. Shigemori, R. Kodama, D. R. Farley, T. Koase, K. G. Estabrook et al., “Experiments on radiative collapse in laser-produced plasmas relevant to astrophysical jets,” Phys. Rev. E 62, 8838–8841 (2000).10.1103/physreve.62.8838
[17]	D. Yuan, Y. Li, T. Tao, H. Wei, J. Zhong et al., “Laboratory investigation of astrophysical collimated jets with intense lasers,” Astrophys. J. 860, 146 (2018).10.3847/1538-4357/aac3d5
[18]	T. E. Dowling and M. E. Bradley, “Ram pressure in astronomy and engineering,” Proc. R. Soc. A 479, 20220504 (2023).10.1098/rspa.2022.0504
[19]	L. J. Clancy, Aerodynamics (Pitman Publishing Limited, London, 1975).
[20]	F. J. Heymann, “On the shock wave velocity and impact pressure in high-speed liquid-solid impact,” J. Basic Eng. 90, 400–402 (1968).10.1115/1.3605114
[21]	G. W. Housner, “Dynamic pressures on accelerated fluid containers,” Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 47, 15–35 (1957).10.1785/bssa0470010015
[22]	G. Cuomo, W. Allsop, and S. Takahashi, “Scaling wave impact pressures on vertical walls,” Coastal Eng. 57, 604–609 (2010).10.1016/j.coastaleng.2010.01.004
[23]	M. Kono and M. M. Škorić, Nonlinear Physics of Plasmas (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010), pp. 57–87.
[24]	R. M. Kulsrud, “MHD description of plasma,” in Handbook of Plasma Physics, 1 (North-Holland Publishing Co., 1983), p. 115.
[25]	S. Galtier, “Turbulence in space plasmas and beyond,” J. Phys. Math. Theor. 51, 293001 (2018).10.1088/1751-8121/aac4c7
[26]	H. Bufferand, G. Ciraolo, G. Dif-Pradalier, P. Ghendrih, P. Tamain et al., “Magnetic geometry and particle source drive of supersonic divertor regimes,” Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 56, 122001 (2014).10.1088/0741-3335/56/12/122001
[27]	T. A. Lapushkina and A. V. Erofeev, “Supersonic flow control via plasma, electric and magnetic impacts,” Aerosp. Sci. Technol. 69, 313–320 (2017).10.1016/j.ast.2017.06.033
[28]	O. Chazot, D. Vanden Abeele, and M. Carbonaro, “Comparison of experimental and numerical results for the dynamic pressure in an inductive plasma flow,” Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 891, 368–376 (1999).10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08785.x
[29]	S. E. Selezneva and M. I. Boulos, “Supersonic induction plasma jet modeling,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 180, 306–311 (2001).10.1016/s0168-583x(01)00436-0
[30]	P. Tzeferacos, M. Fatenejad, N. Flocke, G. Gregori, D. Q. Lamb et al., “FLASH magnetohydrodynamic simulations of shock-generated magnetic field experiments,” High Energy Density Phys. 8, 322–328 (2012).10.1016/j.hedp.2012.08.001
[31]	Z. Lei, Z. H. Zhao, W. P. Yao, Y. Xie, J. L. Jiao et al., “Numerical study of the knot structure in scaled protostellar jets by laboratory laser-driven plasmas,” Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 62, 095020 (2020).10.1088/1361-6587/aba4be
[32]	B. Fryxell, K. Olson, P. Ricker, F. X. Timmes, M. Zingale et al., “FLASH: An adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code for modeling astrophysical thermonuclear flashes,” Astrophys. J., Suppl. Ser. 131, 273 (2000).10.1086/317361
[33]	O. Renner, O. Klimo, M. Krus, Ph. Nicolaï, A. Poletaeva et al., “Hot-electron generation in high-intensity laser–matter experiments with copper targets,” Matter Radiat. Extremes 10, 037403 (2025).10.1063/5.0246250
[34]	Q. Wang, Z. Li, Z. Liu, T. Gong, W. Zhang et al., “The effects of incident light wavelength difference on the collective stimulated Brillouin scattering in plasmas,” Matter Radiat. Extremes 8, 055602 (2023).10.1063/5.0151372
[35]	Y. Ping, Q. Zhang, Z. Ma, Y. Zhang, and J. Zhong, “Formation of jets and shocks during plasma beam transport,” Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 67, 065025 (2025).10.1088/1361-6587/addb76
[36]	D. Mihalas and B. W. Mihalas, Foundations of Radiation Hydrodynamics (Courier Corporation, 2013).
[37]	L. Gao, E. Liang, Y. Lu, R. K. Follet, H. Sio et al., “Mega-Gauss plasma jet creation using a ring of laser beams,” Astrophys. J. Lett. 873, L11 (2019).10.3847/2041-8213/ab07bd
[38]	L. Podio, F. Bacciotti, B. Nisini, J. Eislöffel, F. Massi et al., “Recipes for stellar jets: Results of combined optical/infrared diagnostics,” Astron. Astrophys. 456, 189–204 (2006).10.1051/0004-6361:20054156
[39]	C. Carrasco-González et al., “A magnetized jet from a massive protostar,” Science 330, 1209 (2010).10.1126/science.1195589
[40]	P. R. Young and K. Muglach, “Solar dynamics observatory and hinode observations of a blowout jet in a coronal hole,” Sol. Phys. 289, 3313–3329 (2014).10.1007/s11207-014-0484-z
[41]	Y. Shen, “Observation and modelling of solar jets,” Proc. R. Soc. A 477, 20200217 (2021).10.1098/rspa.2020.0217
[42]	H. L. Marshall, C. R. Canizares, T. Hillwig, A. Mioduszewski, M. Rupen et al., “Multiwavelength observations of the SS 433 jets,” Astrophys. J. 775, 75 (2013).10.1088/0004-637x/775/1/75
[43]	S. Safi-Harb, B. Mac Intyre, S. Zhang, I. Pope, S. Zhang et al., “Hard x-ray emission from the eastern jet of SS 433 powering the W50 ‘Manatee’ nebula: Evidence for particle reacceleration,” Astrophys. J. 935, 163 (2022).10.3847/1538-4357/ac7c05
[44]	K. Akiyama, J. C. Algaba, A. Alberdi, W. Alef, R. Anantua et al., “First M87 event horizon telescope results. VIII. Magnetic field structure near the event horizon,” Astrophys. J. Lett. 910, L13 (2021).10.3847/2041-8213/abe4de
[45]	Ł. Stawarz, F. Aharonian, J. Kataoka, M. Ostrowski, A. Siemiginowska et al., “Dynamics and high-energy emission of the flaring HST-1 knot in the M 87 jet,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 370, 981–992 (2006).10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10525.x
[46]	F. Plaschke, H. Hietala, and Z. Vörös, “Scale sizes of magnetosheath jets,” J. Geophys. Res.: Space Phys. 125, e2020JA027962, (2020).10.1029/2020ja027962
[47]	P. Mészáros, “Gamma-ray bursts,” Rep. Prog. Phys. 69, 2259 (2006).10.1088/0034-4885/69/8/r01
[48]	T. Piran, “The physics of gamma-ray bursts,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 76, 1143–1210 (2004).10.1103/revmodphys.76.1143
[49]	P. Kumar and B. Zhang, “The physics of gamma-ray bursts and relativistic jets,” Phys. Rep. 561, 1 (2015).10.1016/j.physrep.2014.09.008
[50]	B. Zhang and H. Yan, “The internal-collision-induced magnetic reconnection and turbulence (ICMART) model of gamma-ray bursts,” Astrophys. J. 726, 90 (2011).10.1088/0004-637x/726/2/90
[51]	H. Erk, C. E. Jensen, S. Jauernik, and M. Bauer, “Ultrafast low-energy photoelectron diffraction for the study of surface-adsorbate interactions with 100-fs temporal resolution,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 226201 (2024).10.1103/physrevlett.133.226201