Studies of transient behavior and of the unbounded magnetized plasma jet configuration in the magnetohydrodynamic regime

textTwo studies with analytical and computational components of dynamics of plasmas and electromagnetic fields in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) regime are carried out to explain important and novel results from two laboratory plasma experiments. The first study provides a possible mechanism to explain transient magnetic fluctuations observed in the Large Plasma Device at the University of California - Los Angeles [Gekelman, 1991] and shows good qualitative agreement with the experimental results. The calculations are based on the nonmodal approach, which recovers transient dynamics missed by the conventional spectral treatment of configurations with sheared flow. The second study demonstrates several effects of the presence of boundaries on the evolution of a bounded magnetized plasma jet for the parameters and the configuration of the Helimak experiment at the University of Texas at Austin [Gentle, 2008]. The bounded magnetized plasma jet is simulated with a Chebyshev-τ code. Both of these studies focus on time and length scales where the plasma is most adequately described by a resistive-viscous MHD model.Physic