Recent experimental advances coupling laser produced plasmas with externally applied magnetic fields, with intensities of several tens of Teslas, are opening the door to a range of novel studies of astrophysical phenomena in the laboratory. In this context, experiments on the ELFIE laser facility (Ecole Polytechnique, France) include work related to magnetized accretion flows[1], jet collimation [2, 3] and variability[4], and novel experiments on ion-driven streaming instabilities and particle acceleration.

The focus of this paper is on the modelling of these plasmas and their astrophysical counterparts. In particular, we will present results related to accretion flows in young stellar objects. In these systems accretion of matter from the disk to the protostar proceeds along magnetized accretion columns and generates a strong shock with temperatures reaching several MK. Observations show that the X-ray luminosity from this hot plasma is two orders of magnitude below the predicted value based on UV/visible bands, indicating the potential absorption of X-rays by an optically thick envelope of plasma surrounding the shocked plasma. However stability and dynamics of this magnetically confined envelope remains uncertain.

The laboratory model of an accretion column uses a 20 T magnetic fields to confine a superalfvanic laser-driven plasma flow which propagates parallel to the magnetic field lines before colliding with a solid surface mimicking the high-density region of the chromosphere of the star. Simulations and experimental results show the post-shock plasma being expelled sideways from the shock, distorting the magnetic field and producing an envelope of plasma that interacts and modifies the incoming accretion flow and shock. The simulations also reveal that the envelope is unstable to an interchange RT-type instability that alters the plasma's spatial distribution and limits the interaction with the accretion flow.