Collisionless Magnetized Plasma Research Articles

Strong terahertz field generation by relativistic self-focusing of hollow Gaussian laser beam in magnetoplasma

AbstractThe present paper proposes a model for the generation of Terahertz (THz) radiation by self-focused hollow Gaussian beam (HGB) in collisionless magnetized rippled density plasma. At high intensities, the change in the electron mass occurs due to relativistic effect, introducing a nonlinearity in the plasma leading to the self-focusing of the HGB. The nonlinear interaction of this highly intense self-focused HGB with the electron plasma wave in the rippled density plasma, satisfying proper phase matching conditions, results in the resonant excitation of THz radiations at the beat frequency. We have studied the dependence of generated THz radiations on the order of the HGB as well as on the static background magnetic field. The results show that the intensity of the generated radiations is highly sensitive to both of these parameters. For the current scheme the power of the generated THz waves comes out to be of the order of Gigawatts.

A MODEL FOR THE NON-UNIVERSAL POWER LAW OF THE SOLAR WIND SUB-ION-SCALE MAGNETIC SPECTRUM

A phenomenological turbulence model for kinetic Alfv\'en waves in a magnetizedcollisionless plasma, able to reproduce the non-universalpower-law spectra observed at the sub-ion scales in the solar wind and the terrestrial magnetosphere, is presented.The process of temperature homogenization along distortedmagnetic field lines, induced by Landau damping,affects the turbulencetransfer time and results in a steepening of the sub-ion power-law spectrumof critically-balanced turbulence, whose exponent is sensitive to the ratio between the Alfv\'en wave period and the nonlinear timescale. Transition from large-scaleweak turbulence to smaller scale strong turbulence is capturedand non local interactions, relevant in the case of steep spectra, are accounted for.

Whistlers, helicons, and lower hybrid waves: The physics of radio frequency wave propagation and absorption for current drive via Landau damping

This introductory-level tutorial article describes the application of plasma waves in the lower hybrid range of frequencies (LHRF) for current drive in tokamaks. Wave damping mechanisms in a nearly collisionless hot magnetized plasma are briefly described, and the connections between the properties of the damping mechanisms and the optimal choices of wave properties (mode, frequency, wavelength) are explored. The two wave modes available for current drive in the LHRF are described and compared. The terms applied to these waves in different applications of plasma physics are elucidated. The character of the ray paths of these waves in the LHRF is illustrated in slab and toroidal geometries. Applications of these ideas to experiments in the DIII-D tokamak are discussed.

Solitary kinetic Alfven waves in a plasma with negative ions

By using the Sagdeev pseudo-potential approach, the solitary kinetic Alfven waves have been theoretically investigated in a collisionless magnetized plasma in presence of negative ions. Sagdeev potential is plotted for different plasma parameters and it is shown that both hump and dip solitons may exist for kinetic Alfven waves which support the data received from space satellites. The negative ions are shown to have significant effects on the conditions for existence and properties of these solitons.

Analysis of stability of a homogeneous state of anisotropic plasma

Small-amplitude waves in collisionless magnetized plasma are considered in the framework of one-fluid anisotropic magnetohydrodynamics with allowance for the anisotropy of the pressure and thermal flux. Stability of a homogeneous plasma state is analyzed using an eighth-order dispersion relation. Restrictions on the parameters of the homogeneous state at which the dispersion relation has no complex roots at any value of the angle between the wave vector and the unperturbed magnetic field are obtained. The applied method also makes it possible to determine the types of unstable waves.

Effect of nonextensive electron and ion on dust acoustic rogue waves in dusty plasma of opposite polarity

Propagation of nonlinear dust-acoustic waves in a magnetized collisionless plasma having positively, negatively charged dust grains and nonextensive distributed electrons and ions has been investigated. A reductive perturbation method is used to obtain a nonlinear Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation describing the model. The dynamics of the modulational instability gives rise to the formation of rogue waves that is described by a nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The dependence of rogue waves profiles on positive and negative charged dust cyclotron frequencies, nonextensive parameters of electrons and ions is investigated numerically. The result of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as cometary tails and upper mesosphere.

Landau fluid closures with nonlinear large-scale finite Larmor radius corrections for collisionless plasmas

With the aim to develop a tool for simulating turbulence in collisionless magnetized plasmas, fluid models retaining low-frequency kinetic effects such as Landau damping and finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections are discussed. It turns out that, in the absence of ion-cyclotron resonance, the dispersion and damping of kinetic Alfvén waves at scales as small as a fraction of the ion Larmor radius are accurately reproduced when using fluid estimates of the non-gyrotropic moments, at leading-order within a large-scale asymptotics. Differently, evaluations based on the low-frequency linear kinetic theory are necessary in regimes of large temperature anisotropies, and in particular in the presence of the mirror instability. Combining both descriptions leads to a new Landau fluid model retaining large-scale FLR nonlinearities, while reproducing the linear dynamics of low-frequency modes at the sub-ionic scales.

Energy-conserving discontinuous Galerkin methods for the Vlasov–Maxwell system

In this paper, we generalize the idea in our previous work for the Vlasov–Ampère (VA) system (Y. Cheng, A.J. Christlieb, and X. Zhong (2014) [10]) and develop energy-conserving discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for the Vlasov–Maxwell (VM) system. The VM system is a fundamental model in the simulation of collisionless magnetized plasmas. Compared to Y. Cheng, A.J. Christlieb, and X. Zhong (2014) [10], additional care needs to be taken for both the temporal and spatial discretizations to achieve similar type of conservation when the magnetic field is no longer negligible. Our proposed schemes conserve the total particle number and the total energy at the same time, therefore can obtain accurate and physically relevant numerical solutions. The main components of our methods include second order and above, explicit or implicit energy-conserving temporal discretizations, and DG methods for Vlasov and Maxwell's equations with carefully chosen numerical fluxes. Benchmark numerical tests such as the streaming Weibel instability are provided to validate the accuracy and conservation of the schemes.

Energy conversion and magnetic reconnection in space plasmas: Role of nonlinear kinetic processes and structures

Dynamics of plasma systems in space involves processes of large-scale energy conversion. Like in conventional gas dynamics, the conversion can occur on shocks. However, in collisionless magnetized plasma systems, quite different nonlinear structures may be responsible for energy conversion. Those are anisotropic kinetic current sheets. It is demonstrated that observations at the Earth’s magnetopause provide evidence of long-term existence of such structures.

KINETIC TURBULENCE IN THE TERRESTRIAL MAGNETOSHEATH: CLUSTER OBSERVATIONS

We present a first statistical study of subproton- and electron-scale turbulence in the terrestrial magnetosheath using waveform data measured by the Cluster/STAFF search coil magnetometer in the frequency range [1, 180] Hz. It is found that clear spectral breaks exist near the electron scale, which separate two power-law-like frequency bands referred to as the dispersive and the electron dissipation ranges. The frequencies of the breaks fb are shown to be well correlated with the electron gyroscale ρ e rather than with the electron inertial length de . The distribution of the slopes below fb is found to be narrow and peaks near –2.9, while that of the slopes above fb is found to be broader, peaking near –5.2, with values as low as –7.5. This is the first time that such steep power-law spectra are reported in space plasma turbulence. These observations provide new constraints on theoretical modeling of kinetic turbulence and dissipation in collisionless magnetized plasmas.

Effect of Anisotropic Ion Pressure on Solitary Waves in Magnetized Dusty Plasmas

AbstractThe propagation of linear and nonlinear dust ion acoustic waves (DIAWs) are studied in a collisionless magnetized plasma which consists of warm ions having anisotropic thermal pressure, nonthermal (energetic) electrons and static dust particles of positive and negative charge polarity. The anisotropic ion pressure is defined using double adiabatic Chew‐Golberger‐Low (CGL) theory. In the linear regime, the propagation properties of the two possible modes are investigated via ion pressure anisotropy, dust particle polarity and nonthermality of electrons. Using reductive method Zakharov‐Kuznetsov (ZK) equation is derived for the propagation of two dimensional electrostatic dust ion acoustic solitary waves in dusty plasmas. It is found that both compressive and rarefactive solitons are formed in presence of nonthermal electrons using Cairn's distribution [R.A. Cairns, A.A. Mamun, R. Bingham, R.O. Dendy, R. Bostrom, C.M.C. Nairn and P.K. Shukla, Geophys.Res. Lett. 22, 2709 (1995)] in the system. The ion pressure anisotropy, nonthermality of electrons and charge polarity of the dust particles have significant effects on the amplitude and width of the dust ion acoustic solitary waves in such anisotropic nonthermal magnetized dusty plasmas. The numerical results are also presented for illustration. Our finding is applicable to space dusty plasma regimes having anisotropic ion pressure and nonthermal electrons. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Dust acoustic shock waves in dusty plasma of opposite polarity with non-extensive electron and ion distributions

A theoretical investigation has been made of obliquely propagating nonlinear electrostatic shock structures. The reductive perturbation method has been used to derive the Korteweg-de Vries-Burger (KdV-Burger) equation for dust acoustic shock waves in a homogeneous system of a magnetized collisionless plasma comprising a four-component dusty plasma with massive, micron-sized, positively, negatively dust grains and non-extensive electrons and ions. The effect of dust viscosity coefficients of charged dusty plasma of opposite polarity and the non-extensive parameters of electrons and ions have been studied. The behavior of the oscillatory and monotonic shock waves in dusty plasma has been investigated. It has been found that the presence of non-extensive parameters significantly modified the basic properties of shock structures in space environments.

Reversible collisionless magnetic reconnection

Reversible magnetic reconnection is demonstrated for the first time by means of gyrokinetic numerical simulations of a collisionless magnetized plasma. Growth of a current-driven instability in a sheared magnetic field is accompanied by magnetic reconnection due to electron inertia effects. Following the instability growth, the collisionless reconnection is accelerated with development of a cross-shaped structure of current density, and then all field lines are reconnected. The fully reconnected state is followed by the secondary reconnection resulting in a weakly turbulent state. A time-reversed simulation starting from the turbulent state manifests that the collisionless reconnection process proceeds inversely leading to the initial state. During the reversed reconnection, the kinetic energy is reconverted into the original magnetic field energy. In order to understand the stability of reversed process, an external perturbation is added to the fully reconnected state, and it is found that the accelerated reconnection is reversible when the deviation of the E × B streamlines due to the perturbation is comparable with or smaller than a current layer width.

Electron nongyrotropy in the context of collisionless magnetic reconnection

Collisionless magnetized plasmas have the tendency to isotropize their velocity distribution function around the local magnetic field direction, i.e., to be gyrotropic, unless some spatial and/or temporal fluctuations develop at the particle gyroscales. Electron gyroscale inhomogeneities are well known to develop during the magnetic reconnection process. Nongyrotropic electron velocity distribution functions have been observed to play a key role in the dissipative process breaking the field line connectivity. In this paper, we present a new method to quantify the deviation of a particle population from gyrotropy. The method accounts for the full 3D shape of the distribution and its analytical formulation allows fast numerical computation. Regions associated with a significant degree of nongyrotropy are shown, as well as the kinetic origin of the nongyrotropy and the fluid signature it is associated with. Using the result of 2.5D Particle-In-Cell simulations of magnetic reconnection in symmetric and asymmetric configurations, it is found that neither the reconnection site nor the topological boundaries are generally associated with a maximized degree of nongyrotropy. Nongyrotropic regions do not correspond to a specific fluid behavior as equivalent nongyrotropy is found to extend over the electron dissipation region as well as in non-dissipative diamagnetic drift layers. The localization of highly nongyrotropic regions in numerical models and their correlation with other observable quantities can, however, improve the characterization of spatial structures explored by spacecraft missions.

Nonlinear plasma wave in magnetized plasmas

Nonlinear axisymmetric cylindrical plasma oscillations in magnetized collisionless plasmas are a model for the electron fluid collapse on the axis behind an ultrashort relativisically intense laser pulse exciting a plasma wake wave. We present an analytical description of the strongly nonlinear oscillations showing that the magnetic field prevents closing of the cavity formed behind the laser pulse. This effect is demonstrated with 3D PIC simulations of the laser-plasma interaction. An analysis of the betatron oscillations of fast electrons in the presence of the magnetic field reveals a characteristic “Four-Ray Star” pattern.

Fluid simulations of non-resonant anisotropic ion heating

Abstract. The finite Larmor radius (FLR)-Landau fluid model, which extends the usual anisotropic magnetohydrodynamics to magnetized collisionless plasmas by retaining linear Landau damping and finite Larmor radius corrections down to the sub-ionic scales in the quasi-transverse directions, is used to study the non-resonant heating of the plasma by randomly driven Alfvén waves. One-dimensional numerical simulations, free from any artificial dissipation, are used to analyze the influence on the thermal dynamics, of the beta parameter and of the separation between the driving and the ion scales. While the gyrotropic heat fluxes play a dominant role when the plasma is driven at large scales, leading to a parallel heating of the ions by Landau damping, a different regime develops when the driving acts at scales comparable to the ion Larmor radius. Perpendicular heating and parallel cooling of the ions are then observed, an effect that is mostly due to the work of the non-gyrotropic pressure force and that can be viewed as the fluid signature of the so-called stochastic heating. A partial characterization of the plasma by global quantities (such as the magnetic compressibility and the density-magnetic field correlations that provide information on the dominant type of waves) is also presented. The enhancement of the parallel electron heating by a higher level of fast magnetosonic waves is in particular pointed out.

Higher harmonics generation by a spiraling ion beam in collisionless magnetized plasma

AbstractA spiraling ion beam propagating through a magnetized plasma cylinder containing K+ light positive ions, electrons, and C7F14− heavy negative ions drives electrostatic ion–cyclotron waves to instability via cyclotron interaction. Higher harmonics of the beam cyclotron frequency can be generated in this way. The unstable mode frequencies and growth rates of both unstable light positive ions and heavy negative ions increase with the relative density of heavy negative ions. Moreover, the growth rate of unstable modes scales as the one-third power of the beam density. The growth rate of unstable modes increases with harmonic number. The frequencies of both unstable modes also increase with magnetic fields. In addition, the real part of both unstable modes (K+ and C7F14−) increases with the beam energy and scales as almost one-half power of the beam energy.

Theory of spatially non-symmetric kinetic equilibria for collisionless plasmas

The problem posed by the possible existence/non-existence of spatially non-symmetric kinetic equilibria has remained unsolved in plasma theory. For collisionless magnetized plasmas, this involves the construction of stationary solutions of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. In this paper, the issue is addressed for non-relativistic plasmas both in astrophysical and laboratory contexts. The treatment is based on a Lagrangian variational description of single-particle dynamics. Starting point is a non-perturbative formulation of gyrokinetic theory, which allows one to construct “a posteriori” with prescribed order of accuracy an asymptotic representation for the magnetic moment. In terms of the relevant particle adiabatic invariants generalized bi-Maxwellian equilibria are proved to exist. These are shown to recover, under suitable assumptions, a Chapman-Enskog form which permits an analytical treatment of the corresponding fluid moments. In particular, the constrained posed by the Poisson and the Ampere equations are analyzed, both for quasi-neutral and non-neutral plasmas. The conditions of existence of the corresponding non-symmetric kinetic equilibria are investigated. As a notable feature, both astrophysical and laboratory plasmas are shown to exhibit, under suitable conditions, a kinetic dynamo, whereby the equilibrium magnetic field can be self-generated by the equilibrium plasma currents.

Dispersion Equation of Low-Frequency Waves Driven by Temperature Anisotropy

The plasma temperature (or the kinetic pressure) anisotropy is an intrinsic characteristic of a collisionless magnetized plasma. In this paper, based on the two-fluid model, a dispersion equation of low-frequency (ω ≪ ωci, ωci the ion gyrofrequency) waves, including the plasma temperature anisotropy effect, is presented. We investigate the properties of low-frequency waves when the parallel temperature exceeds the perpendicular temperature, and especially their dependence on the propagation angle, pressure anisotropy, and energy closures. The results show that both the instable Alfvén and slow modes are purely growing. The growth rate of the Alfvén wave is not affected by the propagation angle or energy closures, while that of the slow wave depends sensitively on the propagation angle and energy closures as well as pressure anisotropy. The fast wave is always stable. We also show how to elaborate the symbolic calculation of the dispersion equation performed using Mathematica Notebook.

Contribution of Higher-Order Nonlinearity to obliquely electron-acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized auroral zone plasma

Using the Viking Satellite observations data in the dayside auroral zone, a theoretical investigation is carried out for contribution of the higher-order nonlinearity to nonlinear obliquely electron-acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) in a magnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid and non-thermal hot electrons obeying a non-thermal distribution, and stationary ions. A Zakharov–Kuznetsov (ZK) equation that contains the lowest-order nonlinearity and dispersion is derived from the lowest order of perturbation and a linear inhomogeneous (ZK-type) equation that accounts for the higher-order nonlinearity and dispersion is obtained. A stationary solution for equations resulting from higher-order perturbation theory has been found using the renormalization method. The effects of the external magnetic field and the obliqueness are found to significantly change the higher-order properties (viz. the amplitude, width, electric field and energy) of the EASWs. The effect of higher-order nonlinearity on the amplitude and width of the soliton are also discussed. A comparison with the Viking Satellite observations in the dayside auroral zone are taken into account.