Laboratory Experiments, Numerical Simulations, and Astronomical
  Observations of Deflected Supersonic Jets: Application to HH 110
  Collimated supersonic flows in laboratory experiments behave in a similar
manner to astrophysical jets provided that radiation, viscosity, and thermal
conductivity are unimportant in the laboratory jets, and that the experimental
and astrophysical jets share similar dimensionless parameters such as the Mach
number and the ratio of the density between the jet and the ambient medium.
Laboratory jets can be studied for a variety of initial conditions, arbitrary
viewing angles, and different times, attributes especially helpful for
interpreting astronomical images where the viewing angle and initial conditions
are fixed and the time domain is limited. Experiments are also a powerful way
to test numerical fluid codes in a parameter range where the codes must perform
well. In this paper we combine images from a series of laboratory experiments
of deflected supersonic jets with numerical simulations and new spectral
observations of an astrophysical example, the young stellar jet HH 110. The
experiments provide key insights into how deflected jets evolve in 3-D,
particularly within working surfaces where multiple subsonic shells and
filaments form, and along the interface where shocked jet material penetrates
into and destroys the obstacle along its path. The experiments also underscore
the importance of the viewing angle in determining what an observer will see.
The simulations match the experiments so well that we can use the simulated
velocity maps to compare the dynamics in the experiment with those implied by
the astronomical spectra. The experiments support a model where the observed
shock structures in HH 110 form as a result of a pulsed driving source rather
than from weak shocks that may arise in the supersonic shear layer between the
Mach disk and bow shock of the jet's working surface.
