Laboratory experiments offer new capabilities to investigate the micro-physics underlying astrophysical phenomena, in a wide variety of domains, from young star formation to cosmic rays physics. Such experiments offer a way to access the relevant temporal and spatial scales of the plasmas in astrophysical environments, thus enabling us to probe the currently inaccessible fine-scale physics. Moreover laboratory experiments allow for repeatability and parameter scanning, allowing for benchmarking of theoretical models.

Our recent work on characterizing the magnetic compression resulting from the collision between two magnetized plasmas having the same polarity is presented in “Saturation of the compression of two interacting magnetized plasma toroids evidenced in the laboratory”, while our characterization of the dynamics of a magnetic reconnection event perturbed by 3D effects is detailed in “Laboratory evidence of magnetic reconnection hampered in obliquely interacting flux tubes”.

A related video is available at this link.