Collapse - The shock heating of a plasma

The probable consequences of extremely strong shocks (in the limit of no particle collision), for the case where the magnetic pressure behind the shock does not dominate plasma energy density are discussed. It is tentatively concluded that in this limit the energy density will reside in electron plasma oscillations which relax into an electron temperature before the ions are heated. It is hoped that the experimental program will eventually test these theories. In the described shock-heating experiment geometry used is mirror 'or axial field' and the shock is created by the sudden rise of an axial magnetic field. In general, for both experiments, the process of ionization did not occur fast enough to give a clearly defined shock in a perfectly conducting plasma. Consequently, an experiment was started in which the three processes (1) ionization, (2) current boundary layer formation, and (3) shock were to be separately accomplished in an optimum time sequence