Electron Skin Depth Research Articles

Ion acceleration and plasma jets driven by a high intensity laser beam normally incident on thin foils

AbstractWe study the problem of the radiation pressure acceleration of ions and the formation of plasma jets, driven by a high-intensity circularly polarized laser beam normally incident on thin plasma targets. We use an Eulerian Vlasov code to solve the one-dimensional relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell equations for both electrons and ions. We consider the case of a high density plasma with n/ncr = 100, where ncr is the critical density. Three cases are studied with different target thicknesses, to investigate the physical processes involved when decreasing the target thickness from several electron skin depths down to the order of one skin depth. The results show a more important acceleration of the ions when the thickness is decreased. Although we observe in all cases a neutral plasma jet ejected from the back of the target, the evolution of the system which leads to the formation of this neutral plasma jet is different in the three cases considered. In each case, this evolution will be studied in details. Also, a leak or ejection of electrons from the back of the target is observed in the thinnest case treated (thickness of the order of the skin depth), before the formation of the neutral plasma jet, a regime called leaky light sail radiation pressure acceleration. The absence of noise in the Eulerian Vlasov code allows an accurate representation of the phase-space structures of the distribution functions.

Nonlinear variational method for predicting fast collisionless magnetic reconnection

A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges using a two-fluid model for cold ions and electrons. Explosive growth of the tearing mode enabled by electron inertia is analytically estimated using an energy principle with a nonlinear displacement map. Decrease in the potential energy in the nonlinear regime (where the island width exceeds the electron skin depth) is found to be steeper than in the linear regime, resulting in accelerated reconnection. Release of potential energy by such a fluid displacement leads to unsteady and strong convective flow, which is not damped by the small dissipation effects in high-temperature tokamak plasmas. Direct numerical simulation in slab geometry substantiates the theoretical prediction of the nonlinear growth.

Collisionless magnetic reconnection in space plasmas

Magnetic reconnection, the merging of oppositely directed magnetic fields that leads to field reconfiguration, plasma heating, jetting and acceleration, is one of the most celebrated processes in collisionless plasmas. It requires the violation of the frozen-in condition which ties gyrating charged particles to the magnetic field inhibiting diffusion. Ongoing reconnection has been identified in near-Earth space as being responsible for the excitation of substorms, magnetic storms, generation of field aligned currents and their consequences, the wealth of auroral phenomena. Its theoretical understanding is now on the verge of being completed. Reconnection takes place in thin current sheets. Analytical concepts proceeded gradually down to the microscopic scale, the scale of the electron skin depth or inertial length, recognizing that current layers that thin do preferentially undergo spontaneous reconnection. Thick current layers start reconnecting when being forced by plasma inflow to thin. For almost half a century the physical mechanism of reconnection has remained a mystery. Spacecraft in situ observations in combination with sophisticated numerical simulations in two and three dimensions recently clarified the mist, finding that reconnection produces a specific structure of the current layer inside the electron inertial (also called electron diffusion) region around the reconnection site, the X line. Onset of reconnection is attributed to pseudo-viscous contributions of the electron pressure tensor aided by electron inertia and drag, creating a complicated structured electron current sheet, electric fields, and an electron exhaust extended along the current layer. We review the general background theory and recent developments in numerical simulation on collisionless reconnection. It is impossible to cover the entire field of reconnection in a short space-limited review. The presentation necessarily remains cursory, determined by our taste, preferences, and kn

Transient fields produced by a cylindrical electron beam flowing through a plasma

AbstractThe out-of-equilibrium situation in which an initially sharp-edged cylindrical electron beam, that could, e.g., model electrons flowing within a wire, is injected into a plasma is considered. A detailed computation of the subsequently produced magnetic field is presented. The control parameter of the problem is shown to be the ratio of the beam radius to the electron skin depth. Two alternative ways to address analytically the problem are considered: one uses the usual Laplace transform approach, the other one involves Riemann's method in which causality conditions manifest through some integrals of triple products of Bessel functions.

Secondary Magnetic Islands Generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in a Reconnecting Current Sheet

Magnetic islands or flux ropes produced by magnetic reconnection have been observed on the magnetopause, in the magnetotail, and in coronal current sheets. Particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection with a guide field produce elongated electron current layers that spontaneously produce secondary islands. Here, we explore the seed mechanism that gives birth to these islands. The most commonly suggested theory for island formation is the tearing instability. We demonstrate that in our simulations these structures typically start out, not as magnetic islands, but as electron flow vortices within the electron current sheet. When some of these vortices first form, they do not coincide with closed magnetic field lines, as would be the case if they were islands. Only after they have grown larger than the electron skin depth do they couple to the magnetic field and seed the growth of finite-sized islands. The streaming of electrons along the magnetic separatrix produces the flow shear necessary to drive an electron Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and produce the initial vortices. The conditions under which this instability is the dominant mechanism for seeding magnetic islands are explored.

First Resolved Observations of the Demagnetized Electron-Diffusion Region of an Astrophysical Magnetic-Reconnection Site

Spatially resolved, diagnostic signatures across the X-line and electron-diffusion region (EDR) by the Polar spacecraft are reported at Earth's magnetopause. The X-line traversal has a local electron's skin depth scale. First, resolved EDR profiles are presented with peak electron thermal Mach numbers >1.5, anisotropy >7, calibrated electron agyrotropy >1, and misordered expansion parameters indicative of demagnetization and strong (150 eV) increases in electron temperature. The amplitude and phase of these profiles correlate well with a guide geometry kinetic simulation of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Such high resolution diagnosis has been made possible by data processing techniques that afford an 11-fold reduction in the aliasing time for the electron moments.

Electron scale structures of thin current sheets in magnetic reconnection

Abstract. An electron-magnetohydrodynamic model is used to simulate the structure of an electron scale current sheet during early phase of collisionless magnetic reconnection. The current sheet develops structures, viz. bifurcated, filamented and triple-peak structures at different locations in the current sheet. The reversal of the net out-of-plane electric field seen by electrons bifurcates the current sheet in the outflow regions, the individual peaks having scale sizes of a few electron skin depths. Secondary instabilities of the bifurcated CS lead to its filamentation in the outflow and separatrix regions while triple-peak structures form at reconnection sites. These structures have implications for the forthcoming NASA/MMS mission designed to resolve electron space and time scales in the magnetosphere.

Relaxed magnetic field structures in multi-ion plasmas

The steady state solution of a three species magnetoplasma is presented. It is shown that relaxed magnetic field configuration results in a triple curl Beltrami equation which permits the existence of three structures. It is the consequence of inertial effects of the plasma constituents. One of the three vortices is of large scale while the remaining two relaxed structures are of small size of the order of electron skin depth. The magnetic field profiles are given for different Beltrami parameters. The study could be helpful to understand large magnetic field structures in three species plasmas found in space and laboratory.

LARGE-SCALE MAGNETIC FIELD GENERATION VIA THE KINETIC KELVIN-HELMHOLTZ INSTABILITY IN UNMAGNETIZED SCENARIOS

Collisionless plasma instabilities are fundamental in magnetic field generation in astrophysical scenarios, but their role has been addressed in scenarios where velocity shear is absent. In this work we show that velocity shears must be considered when studying realistic astrophysical scenarios, since these trigger the collisionless Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI). We present the first self-consistent three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the KHI in conditions relevant for unmagnetized relativistic outflows with velocity shear, such as active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. We show the generation of a strong large-scale DC magnetic field, which extends over the entire shear-surface, reaching thicknesses of a few tens of electron skin depths, and persisting on timescales much longer than the electron timescale. This DC magnetic field is not captured by magnetohydrodynamic models since it arises from intrinsically kinetic effects. Our results indicate that the KHI can generate intense magnetic fields yielding equipartition values up to B/p ≃ 10−3–10−2 in the electron timescale. The KHI-induced magnetic fields have a characteristic structure that will lead to a distinct radiation signature and can seed the turbulent dynamo amplification process. The dynamics of the KHI are relevant for non-thermal radiation modeling and can also have a strong impact on the formation of relativistic shocks in presence of velocity shears.

Analytic model for coaxial helicity injection in tokamak plasmas

Using a partial differential equation for the time evolution of the mean-field poloidal magnetic flux that incorporates resistivity η and hyper-resistivity Λ terms, an exact analytic solution is obtained for steady-state coaxial helicity injection (CHI) in force-free large aspect ratio tokamaks. The analytic mean-field Ohm’s law model allows for calculation of the tokamak CHI current drive efficiency and the plasma inductances at arbitrary levels of magnetic fluctuations, or dynamo activity. The results of the mean-field model suggest that CHI approaching Ohmic efficiency is only possible in tokamaks when the size of the effective current drive boundary layer, δ≡(Λ/η)1/2, becomes greater than half the size of the plasma, δ>a/2, with a the plasma minor radius. The electron thermal diffusivity due to magnetic fluctuation induced transport is obtained from the expression χe=Λ/μ0de2, with μ0 the permeability of free space and de the electron skin depth, which for typical tokamak fusion plasma parameters is on the order of a millimeter. Thus, the ratio of the energy confinement time to the resistive diffusion time in a tokamak plasma driven by steady-state CHI approaching Ohmic efficiency is shown to be constrained by the relation τE/τη<(de/a)2≈10-6. The mean-field model suggests that steady-state CHI can be viewed most simply as a boundary layer of stochastically wandering magnetic field lines.

Satellite observations of plasma physics near the magnetic field reconnection X line

[1] Satellite observations near the X line are required to understand electromagnetic energy conversion and particle acceleration resulting from magnetic field reconnection. More than 900 orbits of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft across the low-latitude dayside magnetopause, involving more than 4000 magnetopause crossings and 5000 h of data, were searched for examples of magnetic field reconnection within a few electron skin depths of the X line. Evidence that the X line was crossed in the best of these events comes from observations of DC electric and magnetic fields, electrostatic and electromagnetic lower hybrid waves, magnetosheath electrons flowing along the separatricies, and a super-Alfvenic electron jet flowing perpendicular to the magnetic field. A dispersion analysis identifies properties of the wave that are in agreement with the experiment. Neither these waves nor the DC electric field were sufficient to account for acceleration of the electron jet. The anomalous drag was not an important source of the observed DC electric field. The observed pressure gradient is a possible candidate for maintaining the electric field.

Magnetic confinement of a high-density cylindrical plasma

The stationary structure of a weakly collisional plasma column, confined by an axial magnetic field and a cylindrical vessel, is studied for the high-density case, when the diamagnetic azimuthal current is large enough to demagnetize partially the plasma. The plasma response is characterized mainly by two dimensionless parameters: the ratios of the electron gyroradius and the electron skin-depth to the plasma radius, and each of them measures the independent influence of the applied magnetic field and the plasma density on the plasma response. The strong magnetic confinement regime, characterized by very small wall losses, is limited to the small gyroradius and large skin-depth ranges. In the high-density case, when the electron skin-depth is smaller than the electron gyroradius, the skin-depth turns out to be the magnetic screening length, so that the bulk of the plasma behaves as unmagnetized.

Relaxation of a magnetized electron–positron–ion plasma with flows

It is shown that possible relaxed magnetic field configurations of a magnetized electron–positron–ion (e–p–i) plasma with flows can be described by a triple curl Beltrami (TCB) equation, which is equivalent to the superposition of three different Beltrami fields. The TCB equation admits three relaxed structures when the linear and nonlinear inertial forces of all three plasma species involved are taken into account. One of the structures represents the system size while the remaining two could be of the order of electron skin depth.

Beltrami Fields in Partially Ionized Plasmas

The steady state equilibrium equation for partially ionized plasma is derived. The relaxed state is a triple curl Beltrami equation which can be cast as a superposition of three Beltrami fields. This is the result of introducing inertia of all the constituents of partially ionized plasma. The triple curl Beltrami field is governed by three scale parameters, one corresponds to large scale (system size) while the other two represent the small scale structures of the order of electron skin depth.

Nonlinear gyrofluid simulations of collisionless reconnection

The Hamiltonian gyrofluid model recently derived by Waelbroeck et al. [Phys. Plasmas 16, 032109 (2009)] is used to investigate nonlinear collisionless reconnection with a strong guide field by means of numerical simulations. Finite ion Larmor radius gives rise to a cascade of the electrostatic potential to scales below both the ion gyroradius and the electron skin depth. This cascade is similar to that observed previously for the density and current in models with cold ions. In addition to density cavities, the cascades create electron beams at scales below the ion gyroradius. The presence of finite ion temperature is seen to modify, inside the magnetic island, the distribution of the velocity fields that advect two Lagrangian invariants of the system. As a consequence, the fine structure in the electron density is confined to a layer surrounding the separatrix. Finite ion Larmor radius effects produce also a different partition between the electron thermal, potential, and kinetic energy, with respect to the cold-ion case. Other aspects of the dynamics such as the reconnection rate and the stability against Kelvin-Helmholtz modes are similar to simulations with finite electron compressibility but cold ions.

Dynamics of plasma formation, relaxation, and topography modification induced by femtosecond laser pulses in crystalline and amorphous dielectrics

We have studied plasma formation and relaxation dynamics along with the corresponding topography modifications in fused silica and sapphire induced by single femtosecond laser pulses (800 nm and 120 fs). These materials, representative of high bandgap amorphous and crystalline dielectrics, respectively, require nonlinear mechanisms to absorb the laser light. The study employed a femtosecond time-resolved microscopy technique that allows obtaining reflectivity and transmission images of the material surface at well-defined temporal delays after the arrival of the pump pulse which excites the dielectric material. The transient evolution of the free-electron plasma formed can be followed by combining the time-resolved optical data with a Drude model to estimate transient electron densities and skin depths. The temporal evolution of the optical properties is very similar in both materials within the first few hundred picoseconds, including the formation of a high reflectivity ring at about 7 ps. In contrast, at longer delays (100 ps–20 ns) the behavior of both materials differs significantly, revealing a longer lasting ablation process in sapphire. Moreover, transient images of sapphire show a concentric ring pattern surrounding the ablation crater, which is not observed in fused silica. We attribute this phenomenon to optical diffraction at a transient elevation of the ejected molten material at the crater border. On the other hand, the final topography of the ablation crater is radically different for each material. While in fused silica a relatively smooth crater with two distinct regimes is observed, sapphire shows much steeper crater walls, surrounded by a weak depression along with cracks in the material surface. These differences are explained in terms of the most relevant thermal and mechanical properties of the material. Despite these differences the maximum crater depth is comparable in both material at the highest fluences used (16 J/cm2). The evolution of the crater depth as a function of fluence can be described taking into account the individual bandgap of each material.

The radiation impedance of electrodynamic tethers in a polar Jovian orbit

Juno, the second mission in the NASA New Frontiers Program, will both be a polar Jovian orbiter, and use solar arrays for power, moving away from previous use of radioisotope power systems (RPSs) in spite of the weak solar light reaching Jupiter. The power generation at Jupiter is critical, and a conductive tether could be an alternative source of power. A current-carrying tether orbiting in a magnetized ionosphere/plasmasphere will radiate waves. A magnitude of interest for both power generation and signal emission is the wave impedance. Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field in the Solar Planetary System and its plasma density is low everywhere. This leads to an electron plasma frequency smaller than the electron cyclotron frequency, and a high Alfven velocity. Unlike the low Earth orbit (LEO) case, the electron skin depth and the characteristic size of plasma contactors affect the Alfven impedance.

Enhanced Self-Focusing of an Ion Beam Pulse Propagating through a Background Plasma along a Solenoidal Magnetic Field

It is shown that the application of a weak solenoidal magnetic field along the direction of ion beam propagation through a neutralizing background plasma can significantly enhance the beam self-focusing for the case where the beam radius is small compared to the collisionless electron skin depth. The enhanced focusing is provided by a strong radial self-electric field that is generated due to a local polarization of the magnetized plasma background by the moving ion beam. A positive charge of the ion beam pulse becomes overcompensated by the plasma electrons, which results in the radial focusing of the beam ions. The expression for the self-focusing force is derived analytically and compared with the results of numerical simulations.

Large-scale zonal flow and magnetic field generation due to drift-Alfven turbulence in ionosphere plasma

In the present work, the generation of large-scale zonal flows and magnetic field by short-scale collision-less electron skin depth order drift-Alfven turbulence in the ionosphere is investigated. The self-consistent system of two model nonlinear equations, describing the dynamics of wave structures with characteristic scales till to the skin value, is obtained. Evolution equations for the shear flows and the magnetic field is obtained by means of the averaging of model equations for the fast-high-frequency and small-scale fluctuations. It is shown that the large-scale disturbances of plasma motion and magnetic field are spontaneously generated by small-scale drift-Alfven wave turbulence through the nonlinear action of the stresses of Reynolds and Maxwell. Positive feedback in the system is achieved via modulation of the skin size drift-Alfven waves by the large-scale zonal flow and/or by the excited large-scale magnetic field. As a result, the propagation of small-scale wave packets in the ionospheric medium is accompanied by low-frequency, long-wave disturbances generated by parametric instability. Two regimes of this instability, resonance kinetic and hydrodynamic ones, are studied. The increments of the corresponding instabilities are also found. The conditions for the instability development and possibility of the generation of large-scale structures are determined. The nonlinear increment of this interaction substantially depends on the wave vector of Alfven pumping and on the characteristic scale of the generated zonal structures. This means that the instability pumps the energy of primarily small-scale Alfven waves into that of the large-scale zonal structures which is typical for an inverse turbulent cascade. The increment of energy pumping into the large-scale region noticeably depends also on the width of the pumping wave spectrum and with an increase of the width of the initial wave spectrum the instability can be suppressed. It is assumed that the investigated mechanism can refer directly to the generation of mean flow in the atmosphere of the rotating planets and the magnetized plasma.

Excitation of multiple wakefields by short laser pulses in quantum plasmas

We present a theoretical investigation of the excitation of multiple electrostatic wakefields by the ponderomotive force of a short electromagnetic pulse propagating through a dense plasma. It is found that the inclusion of the quantum statistical pressure and quantum electron tunneling effects can qualitatively change the classical behavior of the wakefield. In addition to the well-known plasma oscillation wakefield, with a wavelength of the order of the electron skin depth ( λ e = c / ω p e , which in a dense plasma is of the order of several nanometers, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and ω p e is the electron plasma frequency), wakefields in dense plasmas with a shorter wavelength (in comparison with λ e ) are also excited. The wakefields can trap electrons and accelerate them to extremely high energies over nanoscales.