Laser and Astrophysical Plasmas and Analogy between Similar Instabilities

Abstract

Multipulse laser–matter interactions initiate nonlinear and nonequilibrium plasma fluid flow dynamics and their instability creating microscale vortex filaments, loop-soliton chains, and helically paired structures, similar to those at the astrophysical mega scale. We show that the equation with the Hasimoto structure describes both, the creation of loop solitons by torsion of vortex filaments and the creation of solitons by helical winding of magnetic field lines in the Crab Nebula. Our experiments demonstrate that the breakup of the loop solitons creates vortex rings with (i) quasistatic toroidal Kelvin waves and (ii) parametric oscillatory modes—i.e., with the hierarchical instability order. For the first time, we show that the same hierarchical instability at the micro- and the megascale establishes the conceptual frame for their unique classification based on the hierarchical order of Bessel functions. Present findings reveal that conditions created in the laser-target regions of a high filament density lead to their collective behavior and formation of helically paired and filament-braided “complexes”. We also show, for the first time, that morphological and topological characteristics of the filament-bundle “complexes” with the loop solitons indicate the analogy between similar laser-induced plasma instabilities and those of the Crab and Double-Helix Nebulas—thus enabling conceptualization of fundamental characteristics. These results reveal that the same rotating metric accommodates the complexity of the instabilities of helical filaments, vortex rings, and filament jets in the plasmatic micro- and megascale astrophysical objects.

Keywords

• plasma of intense and ultraintense lasers
• shock-induced variable density flow
• nonlinear and non-equilibrium dynamics
• Rayleigh–Taylor instability
• magnetized plasma jets
• vortex ring instabilities