Shock reflection in a magnetized, collisional laboratory plasma*

We present experimental results investigating the reflection of oblique shocks in magnetised, high density plasmas. The shocks are produced by placing multiple obstacles into the supersonic, super-Alfv\'{e}nic~outflow from an ablating inverse wire array~z-pinch. The advected magnetic field (5T) is large enough to affect the shock structure via pile-up of the field at the obstacle, which depends on the obstacle size and resistivity and its orientation with respect to the field.~ The downstream plasma parameters are determined by the compressibility of the magnetic field and two-fluid effects, and we observe a modest density jump by a factor of 2 at the shock. Thomson scattering data show very little heating at the shock when there is magnetic field pile-up, which is consistent with the downstream pressure being provided by the magnetic field. At the oblique shock reflection, magnetic field compression leads to a clear difference in the reflection geometry when compared with experiments with no field pile-up, and an absence of reflected shocks in some geometries.