Dynamics and energy dissipation of collisional blast waves in a perpendicular magnetic field

We experimentally investigate the evolution and dynamics of laser-produced collisional blast waves (BW) under the influence of a perpendicular magnetic field up to 20 T. We show that an external magnetic field causes the BW to diverge from the Taylor-Sedov solution while also impacting its structural morphology. We notably explore the significance of various magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) processes occurring on scales similar to the width of the BW front by comparing their characteristic lengths to it and demonstrate that the downstream plasma's transition from being super- to sub-magnetosonic plays a pivotal role in the overall structure. Our results show that multiple MHD effects can contribute to shaping a magnetized BW, illustrating the complexity of the underlying physics.