A laser generated proton beam was used to measure the megagauss strength self-generated magnetic fields from a nanosecond laser interaction with an aluminum target. At intensities of 1015 W cm−2, the significant hot electron production and strong heat fluxes result in non-local transport becoming important to describe the magnetic field dynamics. Two-dimensional implicit Vlasov–Fokker–Planck modeling shows that fast advection of the magnetic field from the focal region occurs via the Nernst effect at significantly higher velocities than the sound speed, vN/cs ≈ 10.
Hybrid simulations of fast electron propagation including magnetized transport and non-local effects in the background plasma