  A supersonic flow of magnetized plasma is produced by the application of a 1
MA-peak, 500 ns current pulse to a cylindrical arrangement of parallel wires,
known as an inverse wire array. The plasma flow is produced by the JxB
acceleration of the ablated wire material, and a magnetic field of several
Tesla is embedded at source by the driving current. This setup has been used
for a variety of experiments investigating the interactions of magnetized
plasma flows. In experiments designed to investigate magnetic reconnection, the
collision of counter-streaming flows, carrying oppositely directed magnetic
fields, leads to the formation of a reconnection layer in which we observe ions
reaching temperatures much greater than predicted by classical heating
mechanisms. The breakup of this layer under the plasmoid instability is
dependent on the properties of the inflowing plasma, which can be controlled by
the choice of the wire array material. In other experiments, magnetized shocks
were formed by placing obstacles in the path of the magnetized plasma flow. The
pile-up of magnetic flux in front of a conducting obstacle produces a magnetic
precursor acting on upstream electrons at the distance of the ion inertial
length. This precursor subsequently develops into a steep density transition
via ion-electron fluid decoupling. Obstacles which possess a strong private
magnetic field affect the upstream flow over a much greater distance, providing
an extended bow shock structure. In the region surrounding the obstacle the
magnetic pressure holds off the flow, forming a void of plasma material,
analogous to the magnetopause around planetary bodies with self-generated
magnetic fields.
