Experiments will be conducted on dense laser produced plasmas embedded in a background plasma of considerably lower density (by factor of ~ 1/1000). There are two objectives. The first is the study of the interaction of intense microwaves (microwave absorption and heating) with the dense plasma that can have density gradients parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field. The second is a study of the deposition of energy and momentum of colliding dense plasma blobs in the background plasma. Both of the experiments address fundamental problems in plasma physics and also have applications to space science such as ionospheric heating and coronal mass ejections.
