Blast-wave-sphere interaction using a laser-produced plasma: An experimentmotivated by supernova 1987A - art. no. 047402

We present x-ray shadowgraphs from a high Mach number (similar to 20) labor atory environment that simulate outward flowing ejecta matter from supernov ae that interact with ambient cloud matter. Using a laser-plastic foil inte raction, we generate a "complex" blast wave (a supersonic flow containing f orward and reverse shock waves and a contact discontinuity between them) th at interacts with a high-density (100 times ambient) sphere. The experiment al results, including vorticity localization, compare favorably with two-di mensional axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations.