Propagation Of Charged Particles Research Articles

Factor Fluctuation in Super Short Avalanche Electron Propagation

Compact Intracloud Discharges (CID) and most of Transient Luminous Events (TLE) are two known microsecond-pulse discharges related to electrical activity of thunderclouds. However, their nature and relationship with other cloud discharges still unclear. Few theoretical models had been proposed to explain the nature of this phenomenon. Some proposed models involved the effects of runaway electron avalanches (REA) and relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREA) as essential part of the aforementioned discharges. In this work, an initial stage is done to propose new models to explain behavior of CID and TLE. Thus, it is simulated the propagation of a charged particle for a short distance, emulating a supershort avalanche electron beam (SAEB). Specifically, first results presented come from simulating the displacement of a charged particle and finding its fluctuation factor by means of perturbations theory. Other works on this issue has been done using different approaches namely, Feynman integrals with similar outcomes. Perturbation theory is used because in order to allow a future interaction in the model among particles, the terms of the perturbation series can be manipulated using Feynman diagrams. Initial conditions assumed for this work are: unit cell, anisotropic volume and N molecules inside the volume with no interaction. Three relevant conclusions can be exposed from the results, the simulation is coherent with the obtained results using Feynman integrals approach and the equations make possible to predict the amount of photons generated during the avalanche. Finally, it is possible to model charged particle generation through annihilation of variations of electric potential. Future work includes update the model to consider the interaction among molecules and perform experimental validation of the proposed model.

Influence of pulse front steepness on vacuum flashover characteristics

Studying flashover characteristics in vacuum environment is extremely significant for designing reliable insulation structures. The waveform of applied voltage excitations greatly affects the flashover process. In this study, the influence of nanosecond pulse front steepness on flashover process in vacuum is investigated. Firstly, flashover experiments with nanosecond pulses are conducted. Nanosecond pulses with different front steepness are generated and used to trigger flashovers on sample surface. The relationship between pulse front steepness and flashover voltage is studied. Meanwhile, a particle-in-cell with Monte Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) two-dimensional self-sustaining discharge model based on secondary electron emission avalanche (SEEA) scheme is established. The distribution of charged particles, electric field and their evolution during flashover process are presented. Furthermore, pulses with various rising steepness are applied to the model. The multiplication and propagation of charged particles in different pulse waveform conditions are studied. In all conditions, two stages during flashover process can be obviously distinguished based on charged particle number evolution which divides the overall flashover delay time into two parts. By analyzing the voltage development in these two time slots, the quasi-linear relationship between pulse front steepness and flashover voltage in nanosecond pulse flashover in vacuum is explained.

Relative distribution of cosmic rays and magnetic fields

Synchrotron radiation from cosmic rays is a key observational probe of the galactic magnetic field. Interpreting synchrotron emission data requires knowledge of the cosmic ray number density, which is often assumed to be in energy equipartition (or otherwise tightly correlated) with the magnetic field energy. However, there is no compelling observational or theoretical reason to expect such tight correlation to hold across all scales. We use test particle simulations, tracing the propagation of charged particles (protons) through a random magnetic field, to study the cosmic ray distribution at scales comparable to the correlation scale of the turbulent flow in the interstellar medium ($\simeq 100\,{\rm pc}$ in spiral galaxies). In these simulations, we find that there is no spatial correlation between the cosmic ray number density and the magnetic field energy density. In fact, their distributions are approximately statistically independent. We find that low-energy cosmic rays can become trapped between magnetic mirrors, whose location depends more on the structure of the field lines than on the field strength.

Tadpole diagrams in constant electromagnetic fields

We show how all possible one-particle reducible tadpole diagrams in constant electromagnetic fields can be constructed from one-particle irreducible constant-field diagrams. The construction procedure is essentially algebraic and involves differentiations of the latter class of diagrams with respect to the field strength tensor and contractions with derivatives of the one-particle irreducible part of the Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian in constant fields. Specific examples include the two-loop addendum to the Heisenberg-Euler effective action as well as a novel one-loop correction to the charged particle propagator in constant electromagnetic fields discovered recently. As an additional example, the approach devised in the present article is adopted to derive the tadpole contribution to the two-loop photon polarization tensor in constant fields for the first time.

Generation of fast charged particles in a superposition of oscillating electric fields with stochastically jumping phases

The motion of a nonrelativistic charged particle in an alternating electric field representing a superposition of monochromatic waves with phases described by stochastic jumplike functions of time has been studied. Statistical analysis is performed in the framework of an exactly solvable model, in which the phases are treated as independent random telegraph signals. The mean kinetic energy of the charged particle is calculated. It is shown that there is a manifold of characteristics of stochastically jumping phases (shift amplitudes and mean frequencies) for which the oscillating mean energy grows with the time. For time periods much greater than the characteristic decay time of phase correlations, the mean kinetic energy linearly increases with time (stochastic heating). The growth rate nonmonotonically depends on the parameters of phase jumps, and the maximum increment is proportional to the number of harmonics.

Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treatment of Infected Skin Tissue: Evaluation of Sterility, Viability, and Integrity

Sterilization of equipment and tissues is a common clinical practice: there are different chemical, mechanical, and electromagnetic aseptic techniques for inactivating microorganisms. In particular, skin tissue banks are investigating new methods to efficiently decolonize skin tissues, while preserving their structural features. In recent years, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has demonstrated bactericidal, virucidal, and fungicidal properties, due to the generation of reactive species and charged particles. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the implementation of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) treatment in air can effectively decontaminate skin tissue from Staphylococcus aureus , retaining cell viability and skin integrity. Fresh skin samples, taken from multitissue donors, were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus and treated with a DBD source, to verify the level of bacterial decontamination induced by plasma. Cell viability and structural properties of skin tissue were investigated using MTT assay and hematoxylin-eosin staining, respectively. Our results show that CAP can sterilize skin tissue with a bacterial load up to 103 CFU/cm2; moreover, it does not affect cell viability, and no loss of skin structural properties was observed. Thus, CAP treatment could be considered an innovative method for decolonization of human skin, without inducing any microscopic tissue damage, while keeping good cell viability.

Observations of a Coronal Shock Wave and the Production of Solar Energetic Particles

Abstract We present a study that clarifies the acceleration source/mechanism of the solar energetic particle (SEP) event on 2011 August 9. Based on the assumption of scatter-free propagation of charged particles along the interplanetary magnetic field, the solar particle release times of the electrons and protons are derived and both found to be in the decay phase of the flare emission. Furthermore, we compare the peak-flux spectra of the in situ particles and the remote-sensing hard X-ray photons and find a weak correlation between them. In particular, we note that an extreme ultraviolet shock wave, presumed to be a signature of coronal mass ejection (CME) shock front on the solar surface, and an associated type II radio burst were observed alongside this event. Under the framework of diffusive shock acceleration, the derived shock compression ratio can accelerate particles with a theoretical spectral index , which is comparable to the observational index of ∼2.0. Our results appear to support the notion that the coronal shock wave was most likely responsible for the SEP event. Specifically, we find that the electrons were released in a low coronal site at ∼0.58 solar radii, and protons were released when the CME-driven shock propagated to ∼1.38 solar radii. The multi-spacecraft observations, in addition, reveal the connection between the acceleration of shock waves and the release of SEPs.

Cross-correlation spectroscopy study of the transient spark discharge in atmospheric pressure air

A streamer-to-spark transition in a self-pulsing transient spark (TS) discharge of positive polarity in air was investigated using cross-correlation spectroscopy. The entire temporal evolution of the TS was recorded for several spectral bands and lines: the second positive system of N2 (337.1 nm), the first negative system of (391.4 nm), and atomic oxygen (777.1 nm). The results enable the visualization of the different phases of discharge development including the primary streamer, the secondary streamer, and the transition to the spark. The spatio-temporal distribution of the reduced electric field strength during the primary streamer phase of the TS was determined and discussed. The transition from the streamer to the spark proceeds very fast within about 10 ns for the TS with a current pulse repetition rate in the range 8–10 kHz. This is attributed to memory effects, leading to a low net electron attachment rate and faster propagation of the secondary streamer. Gas heating, accumulation of species such as oxygen atoms from the previous TS pulses, as well as generation of charged particles by stepwise ionization seem to play important roles contributing to this fast streamer-to-spark transition.

Energy losses of positive and negative charged particles in electron gas

A heavy charged particle propagation through electron gas has been studied using combination of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and the Green’s functions method. The energy loss of a charged particle has been found in the case of large transferred momentum taking into account the interference term in the expression for the rate. The dependence of the energy loss of a charged particles in electron gas with nonzero temperature on the sign of the charge has been obtained.

ENERGETIC PARTICLE TRANSPORT ACROSS THE MEAN MAGNETIC FIELD: BEFORE DIFFUSION

ABSTRACT Current particle transport models describe the propagation of charged particles across the mean field direction in turbulent plasmas as diffusion. However, recent studies suggest that at short timescales, such as soon after solar energetic particle (SEP) injection, particles remain on turbulently meandering field lines, which results in nondiffusive initial propagation across the mean magnetic field. In this work, we use a new technique to investigate how the particles are displaced from their original field lines, and we quantify the parameters of the transition from field-aligned particle propagation along meandering field lines to particle diffusion across the mean magnetic field. We show that the initial decoupling of the particles from the field lines is slow, and particles remain within a Larmor radius from their initial meandering field lines for tens to hundreds of Larmor periods, for 0.1–10 MeV protons in turbulence conditions typical of the solar wind at 1 au. Subsequently, particles decouple from their initial field lines and after hundreds to thousands of Larmor periods reach time-asymptotic diffusive behavior consistent with particle diffusion across the mean field caused by the meandering of the field lines. We show that the typical duration of the prediffusive phase, hours to tens of hours for 10 MeV protons in 1 au solar wind turbulence conditions, is significant for SEP propagation to 1 au and must be taken into account when modeling SEP propagation in the interplanetary space.

LikeDM: Likelihood calculator of dark matter detection

With the large progress in searches for dark matter (DM) particles with indirect and direct methods, we develop a numerical tool that enables fast calculations of the likelihoods of specified DM particle models given a number of observational data, such as charged cosmic rays from space-borne experiments (e.g., PAMELA, AMS-02), γ-rays from the Fermi space telescope, and underground direct detection experiments. The purpose of this tool — LikeDM, likelihood calculator for dark matter detection — is to bridge the gap between a particle model of DM and the observational data. The intermediate steps between these two, including the astrophysical backgrounds, the propagation of charged particles, the analysis of Fermi γ-ray data, as well as the DM velocity distribution and the nuclear form factor, have been dealt with in the code. We release the first version (v1.0) focusing on the constraints from indirect detection of DM with charged cosmic and gamma rays. Direct detection will be implemented in the next version. This manual describes the framework, usage, and related physics of the code. Program summaryProgram Title:LikeDMProgram Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/p93d3ksfvd.1Licensing provisions: GPLv3Programming language: FORTRAN 90 and PythonNature of problem: Dealing with the intermediate steps between a dark matter model and data.Solution method: Fast computation of the likelihood of a given dark matter model (defined by a mass, cross section or decay rate, and annihilation or decay yield spectrum), without digging into the details of cosmic-ray propagation, Fermi-LAT data analysis, or related astrophysical backgrounds.

Particle acceleration in the vacuum gaps in black hole magnetospheres

We consider particle acceleration in vacuum gaps in magnetospheres of black holes powered through Blandford-Znajek mechanism and embedded into radiatively-inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) environment. In such situation the gap height is limited by the onset of gamma-gamma pair production on the infrared photons originating from the RIAF. We numerically calculate acceleration and propagation of charged particles taking into account the detailed structure of electric and magnetic field in the gap and in the entire black hole magnetosphere, radiative energy losses and interactions of gamma rays produced by the propagated charged particles with the background radiation field of RIAF. We show that the presence of the vacuum gap has clear observational signatures. The spectra of emission from gaps embedded into a relatively high luminosity RIAF are dominated by the inverse Compton emission with a sharp, super-exponential cut-off in the very-high-energy gamma-ray band. The cut-off energy is determined by the properties of the RIAF and is largely independent of the structure of magnetosphere and geometry of the gap.The spectra of the gap residing in low-luminosity RIAFs are dominated by synchrotron / curvature emission with the spectra extending into 1-100 GeV energy range. We also consider the effect of possible acceleration of protons in the gap and find that proton energies could reach the ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) range only in extremely low luminosity RIAFs.

Spectroscopic studies of non-thermal plasma jet at atmospheric pressure formed in low-current nonsteady-state plasmatron for biomedical applications

The optical and electrophysical characteristics of the nonequilibrium low-temperature plasma formed by a low-current nonsteady-state plasmatron are experimentally investigated in the present work. It is demonstrated that experimental data on the optical diagnostics of the plasma jet can provide a basis for the construction of a self-consistent physical and mathematical plasma model and for the creation of plasma sources with controllable electrophysical parameters intended for the generation of the required concentration of active particles. Results of spectroscopic diagnostics of plasma of the low-current nonsteady-state plasmatron confirm that the given source is efficient for the generation of charged particles and short-wavelength radiation—important plasma components for biomedical problems of an increase in the efficiency of treatment of biological tissues by charged particles. Measurement of the spatial distribution of the plasma jet potential by the probe method has demonstrated that a negative space charge is formed in the plasma jet possibly due to the formation of electronegative oxygen ions.

Plasma heating and emission of runaway charged particles in a plasma focus device

The required experimental E-field across plasma to generate significant runaway electrons and hard X-rays during the pinch phase and the phase with anomalous resistance has been investigated in a dense plasma focus. The plasma voltage and inductance have been measured in a plasma focus with two different anode tip structures. The results show a significant generation of charged particles and hard X-rays at smaller E-field across the plasma column in the phase of anomalous resistances compared to the pinch phase. Plasma heating process may enhance the rate of runaway-charged-particle generation due to the combined effects of a reduced Dreicer field and the avalanche effects during the phase of anomalous resistance.

Global diffusion of cosmic rays in random magnetic fields

The propagation of charged particles, including cosmic rays, in a partially ordered magnetic field is characterized by a diffusion tensor whose components depend on the particle's Larmor radius $R_L$ and the degree of order in the magnetic field. Most studies of the particle diffusion presuppose a scale separation between the mean and random magnetic fields (e.g., there being a pronounced minimum in the magnetic power spectrum at intermediate scales). Scale separation is often a good approximation in laboratory plasmas, but not in most astrophysical environments such as the interstellar medium (ISM). Modern simulations of the ISM have numerical resolution of order 1 pc, so the Larmor radius of the cosmic rays that dominate in energy density is at least $10^{6}$ times smaller than the resolved scales. Large-scale simulations of cosmic ray propagation in the ISM thus rely on oversimplified forms of the diffusion tensor. We take the first steps towards a more realistic description of cosmic ray diffusion for such simulations, obtaining direct estimates of the diffusion tensor from test particle simulations in random magnetic fields (with the Larmor radius scale being fully resolved), for a range of particle energies corresponding to $10^{-2}\lesssim R_L/l_c \lesssim 10^{3}$, where $l_c$ is the magnetic correlation length. We obtain explicit expressions for the cosmic ray diffusion tensor for $R_L/l_c \ll 1$, that might be used in a sub-grid model of cosmic ray diffusion. The diffusion coefficients obtained are closely connected with existing transport theories that include the random walk of magnetic lines.

Propagators of charged particles in an external magnetic field, expanded over Landau levels

Various forms of expressions for the propagators of charged particles in a constant magnetic field that should be used for investigations of electroweak processes in an external uniform magnetic fields are discussed. Formulas for the propagators of the Standard Model charged [Formula: see text]- and scalar [Formula: see text]-bosons in an arbitrary [Formula: see text]-gauge, expanded over Landau levels, are derived for the first time.

Spatiotemporal Distribution of the Energy Absorbed by the Electronic Subsystem During the Retardation of a Fast Heavy Charged Particle in Matter

The characteristics of the spatiotemporal distribution of the energy absorbed by the electronic subsystem during the propagation of fast heavy charged particle in matter – the time dependence of the relative fraction of the energy absorbed by electrons per unit path length of a heavy charged particle and as a function of the average squared distance characterizing the size of the region of absorption – are found on the basis of the solution of the linear kinetic equation. These results are obtained in a dimensionless form and depend on the energy of the heavy charged particle per nucleon and on the average ionization potential of the atoms of the material. The characteristics for concrete particles and materials can be determined using the appropriate dimensional variables.

The effect of vacuum polarization on the propagation of charged particles and light

An examination of the physical phenomena of vacuum polarization provides for the effect of the properties of the medium on the propagation of charged particles and light. The implications for the elementary particle physics and relativistic quantum mechanics are discussed. The relation with dark matter has implication for J vs. M2 plot of astronomical objects and the w-parameter.

Secularly growing loop corrections in strong electric fields

We calculate one--loop corrections to the vertexes and propagators of photons and charged particles in the strong electric field backgrounds. We use the Schwinger--Keldysh diagrammatic technique. We observe that photon's Keldysh propagator receives growing with time infrared contribution. As the result, loop corrections are not suppressed in comparison with tree--level contribution. This effect substantially changes the standard picture of the pair production. To sum up leading IR corrections from all loops we consider the infrared limit of the Dyson--Schwinger equations and reduce them to a single kinetic equation.

Sub-microsecond streamer breakdown in transformer oil-filled short gaps

A two dimensional axis-symmetric fluid model is developed to present the streamer discharge process in transformer oil under positive and negative sub-microsecond impulse voltage, which is based on the hydrodynamic drift-diffusion approximation to simulate the dynamics of discharge inception and propagation. The streamers' spatial evolution with time are obtained, i.e., the distribution of electric field and space charge density under different conditions such as the amplitude of applied voltage and rise time. Simulation results verify the breakdown voltage has a distinct polar effect: negative streamer requires more than 2 times voltage threshold than that of positive one. It is revealed that the negative streamer, which usually has a bushy profile, is much more diffusive than the positive one. The magnitude and rise time of the applied voltage have evident influences on the shape and speed of the streamer in oil. The formation of positive or negative streamers are both characterized by a self-generated field enhancement at the head, and space charges enhance the front field of ionization region to assist the growing discharge channel to propagate longer. In terms of the generation of charged particles, it is considered that field-dependent molecular ionization predominates the charge generation mechanism of streamer discharge processes in transformer oil.