Magnetic field generation by Biermann battery and Weibel instability in laboratory shock waves

¹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK
² Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
³ Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, Space Science, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward St, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, USA

Abstract

Magnetic field generation in the Universe is still an open problem. Possible mechanisms involve the Weibel instability, due to anisotropic phase-space distributions, as well as the Biermann battery, due to misaligned density and temperature gradients. These mechanisms can be reproduced in scaled laboratory experiments. In this contribution we estimate the relative importance of these two processes and explore the laser-energy requirements for producing Weibel dominated shocks.