The inadequacy of a magnetohydrodynamic approach to the Biermann battery.

Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci

Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

Published: January 2021

Magnetic fields can be generated in plasmas by the Biermann battery when the electric field produced by the electron pressure gradient has a curl. The commonly employed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of the Biermann battery breaks down when the electron distribution function is distorted away from Maxwellian. Using both MHD and kinetic simulations of a laser-plasma interaction relevant to inertial confinement fusion we have shown that this distortion can reduce the Biermann-producing electric field by around 50%. More importantly, the use of a flux limiter in an MHD treatment to deal with the effect of the non-Maxwellian electron distribution on electron thermal transport leads to a completely unphysical prediction of the Biermann-producing electric field and so results in erroneous predictions for the generated magnetic field. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)'.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7741009PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0017DOI Listing

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