Ion-scale magnetospheres have been observed around comets, weakly magnetized asteroids, and localized regions on the Moon and provide a unique environment to study kinetic-scale plasma physics, in particular in the collision-less regime. In this work, we present the results of particle-in-cell simulations that replicate recent experiments on the large plasma device at the University of California, Los Angeles. Using high-repetition rate lasers, ion-scale magnetospheres were created to drive a plasma flow into a dipolar magnetic field embedded in a uniform background magnetic field. The simulations are employed to evolve idealized 2D configurations of the experiments, study highly resolved, volumetric datasets, and determine the magnetospheric structure, magnetopause location, and kinetic-scale structures of the plasma current distribution. We show the formation of a magnetic cavity and a magnetic compression in the magnetospheric region, and two main current structures in the dayside of the magnetic obstacle: the diamagnetic current, supported by the driver plasma flow, and the current associated with the magnetopause, supported by both the background and driver plasmas with some time-dependence. From multiple parameter scans, we show a reflection of the magnetic compression, bounded by the length of the driver plasma, and a higher separation of the main current structures for lower dipolar magnetic moments.
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Laser-driven, ion-scale magnetospheres in laboratory plasmas. II. Particle-in-cell simulations
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March 2022
Research Article|
March 25 2022
Laser-driven, ion-scale magnetospheres in laboratory plasmas. II. Particle-in-cell simulations
Filipe D. Cruz
;
Filipe D. Cruz
a)
1
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Derek B. Schaeffer
;
Derek B. Schaeffer
2
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA
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Fábio Cruz
;
Fábio Cruz
1
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
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Luis O. Silva
Luis O. Silva
b)
1
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Phys. Plasmas 29, 032902 (2022)
Article history
Received:
January 05 2022
Accepted:
March 08 2022
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Citation
Filipe D. Cruz, Derek B. Schaeffer, Fábio Cruz, Luis O. Silva; Laser-driven, ion-scale magnetospheres in laboratory plasmas. II. Particle-in-cell simulations. Phys. Plasmas 1 March 2022; 29 (3): 032902. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0084354
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