Stimulated Detonation of a High-Energy Heterogeneous Plasma Formation Created by a Capillary Erosive Plasma Generator and a Magneto-Plasma Compressor

Abstract

Studying the physical properties of long-lived plasma formations can help us understand the nature of electrophysical phenomena in thunder clouds, the lower ionosphere, tornadoes, volcanic activity, and the associated appearance of natural plasmoids (such as ball lightning, sprites, jets, etc.). The stimulated detonation of long-lived energy-consuming plasmoids (LEPs) obtained in a laboratory using a combined type of plasma generator consisting of an erosive plasma generator and a magnetoplasma compressor (MPC) is studied in this paper. It is found that a necessary condition for detonation is the excess of certain threshold values of pressure and temperature. The existence of a directed explosion mode is established, which is realized only at the optimal delay times (of the order of t_d ~ 2000 μs) between the beginning of a pulsed erosion discharge and the discharge of an MPC. The parameters of shock waves (SWs), as well as the optical and X-ray spectra of LEPs in the stimulated detonation mode are measured.