Heating and acceleration of plasma during explosion of a wire in vacuum ina strong longitudinal magnetic field

Additional estimates {Yu. E. Adam'yan, A. N. Berezkin, and G. A. Shneerson, Abstracts of the VI All-Union Conference on the Physics of High-Temperatur e Plasmas [in Russian], Leningrad (1983), Vol. 2, pp. 387-389; Yu. E. Adam' yan, V. M. Vasilevskii, Krivosheev et al;, Pis'ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 21(23), 43 (1995) [Tech. Phys. Lett. 21(12), 968 (1995)]; S. N. Kolgatin and G. A. Sh neerson, Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67 (1), 57 (1997) [Tech. Phys. 42, 39 (1997)]; Yu. E. Adam'yan, V. M. Vasilevskii, Krivosheev &etal;, Abstracts of the VI Inte rnational Conference on the Generation of Megagauss Magnetic Fields and Rel ated Experiments [in Russian], Sarov (1996)]} are presented to illustrate t he possibility of and to explain the phenomenon of the acceleration and hea ting of a conducting medium as it expands perpendicular to a specified exte rnal field. The bulk of this paper is devoted to a description of experimen ts where this effect was observed during expansion of a cloud of gas with a relatively low density formed near a wire as it undergoes an electrical ex plosion in vacuum. The experimental data, obtained using additional diagnos tics including streak camera photography and diamagnetic measurements, show that in magnetic fields with an induction of about 50 T, heating and accel eration of the outer layers of the plasma from the electrical explosion of a wire in vacuum to velocities of about 20 km/s are observed. A numerical s imulation of the acceleration process is used for interpreting the results. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7842(99)02205-9].