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The results of studying the propagation of plasma flows in the surrounding medium performed on the PF-3 plasma focus facility in the laboratory simulation of astrophysical jets from young stellar objects are presented. The modes with the plasma formations which retain their compactness when propagated over significant distances are obtained. The decrement of the flow's deceleration as a result of its interaction with the background gas is determined. A technique is developed for estimating the plasma temperature by the ratio of radiation intensities from various parts of the spectrum. It is shown that the background gas is heated by the flow radiation, which leads to a change in its ionization state. Thus, the plasma flow propagates not in a neutral gas but in a weakly ionized plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of measurements of soft X-ray emission with photon energies of <1 keV under conditions of a plasma focus (PF) experiment are presented. The experiments were carried out at the world's largest PF device-the PF-3 Filippov-type facility ( I ⩽ 3 MA, T/4 ≈ 15-20 µs, W ⩽ 3 MJ). X-ray emission from both a discharge in pure neon and with a tungsten wire array placed on the axis of the discharge chamber was detected. The wire array imploded under the action of the electric current intercepted from the plasma current sheath of the PF discharge in neon. The measured soft X-ray powers from a conventional PF discharge in gas and a PF discharge in the presence of a wire array were compared for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]