Electromagnetic acceleration of material from a plate hit by a pulsed electron beam

An intense pulsed electron beam traversing a thin metal plate creates a volume of dense plasma. Current flows in this plasma as a result of the charge and magnetic field introduced by the relativistic electrons. A magnetic field may linger after the electron beam pulse because of the conductivity of the material. This field decays by both diffusing out of the conducting matter and causing it to expand. If the magnetized matter is of low density and high conductivity it may expand quickly. Scaling laws for this acceleration are sought by analyzing the idealization of a steady axisymmetric flow. This case simplifies a general formulation based on both Euler`s and Maxwell`s equations. As an example, fluid with conductivity {sigma} = 8 x 10{sup 4} Siemens/m, density {rho} = 8 x 10{sup -3} kg/m{sup 3}, and initially magnetized to B = 1 Tesla can accelerate to v = 10{sup 4} m/s within a distance comparable to L = 1 mm and a time comparable to {sigma}{mu}L{sup 2} = 100 ns, which is the magnetic diffusion time. If instead, {sigma} = 8 x 10{sup 3} Siemens/m and {rho} = 8 x 10{sup -5} kg/m{sup 3} then v = 10{sup 5} m/s with a magnetic diffusion time {sigma}{mu}L{sup 2} = 10 ns. These idealized flows have R{sub M} = {sigma}{mu}vL = 1, where R{sub M} is the magnetic Reynolds number. The target magnetizes by a thermal electric effect