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Results for “COLLISIONLESS PLASMA”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Collisionless cooling of perpendicular electron temperature in the thermal quench of a magnetized plasma

Thermal quench of a nearly collisionless plasma against an isolated cooling boundary or region is an undesirable off-normal event in magnetic fusion experiments, but an ubiquitous process of cosmological importance in astrophysical plasmas. Parallel transport theory of ambipolar-constrained tail electron loss is known to predict rapid cooling of the parallel electron temperature $T_{e\Vert}$ although $T_{e\Vert}$ is difficult to diagnose in actual experiments. Instead direct experimental measurements can readily track the perpendicular electron temperature $T_{e\bot}$ via electron cyclotron emission. The physics underlying the observed fast drop in $T_{e\bot}$ requires a resolution. Here two collisionless mechanisms, dilutional cooling by infalling cold electrons and wave-particle interaction by two families of whistler instabilities, are shown to enable fast $T_{e\bot}$ cooling that closely tracks the mostly collisionless crash of $T_{e\Vert}$. These findings motivate both experimental validation and reexamination of a broad class of plasma cooling problems in laboratory, space, and astrophysical settings.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1990

Collisionless tearing instability in magnetotail plasmas

The problem of the linear stability of collisionless tearing modes in the earth's magnetotail is revisited. It is found that the collisionless tearing mode is linearly unstable with wavelengths of the order of 10 R(E). It is shown that an important feature neglected in earlier theories is a nonzero equilibrium B(y)-field. The physics of the instability is elucidated in the context of a simple slab model and a sheared parabolic model which is representative of the magnetotail in which all three components of the magnetic field are nonzero. The dispersion equation for the instability is obtained by a boundary-layer analysis. The implications of the theory for recent observations on current disruption and diversion during substorms is discussed.

Wang, Xiaogang↗
NASA NTRS1993

Plasma separation from magnetic field lines in a magnetic nozzle

This paper discusses conditions for separation of a plasma from the magnetic field of a magnetic nozzle. The analysis assumes a collisionless, quasineutral plasma, and therefore the results represent a lower bound on the amount of detachment possible for a given set of plasma conditions. We show that collisionless separation can occur because finite electron mass inhibits the flow of azimuthal currents in the nozzle. Separation conditions are governed by a parameter G which depends on plasma and nozzle conditions. Several methods of improving plasma detachment are presented, including moving the plasma generation zone downstream from the region of strongest magnetic field and using dual magnets to focus the plasma beam. Plasma detachment can be enhanced by manipulation of the nozzle configuration.

Kaufman, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Computation on collisionless steady-state plasma flow past a charged disk

A computer method is presented using the 'inside-out' approach, for predicting the structure of the disturbed zone near a moving body in space. The approach uses fewer simplifying assumptions than other available methods, and is applicable to large ranges of the values of body and plasma parameters. Two major advances concerning 3-dimensional bodies are that thermal motions of ions as well as of electrons are treated realistically by following their trajectories in the electric field, and the technique for achieving self-consistency is promising for very large bodies. Three sample solutions were obtained for a disk-shaped body, charged negatively to a potential 4kT/e. With ion Mach number 4, and equal ion and electron temperatures, the wakes of a relatively small body (radius 5 Debye lengths) and a relatively large body (radius 100 Debye lengths) both begin to fill up between 2 and 3 body radii downstream. For the large body there is in addition a potential well (about 6kT/e deep) behind the body. Increasing the ion Mach number to 8 for the large body causes the potential well to become wider and longer but not deeper. For the large body, the quasineutrality assumption is validated outside of a cone-shaped region in the very near wake. For the large as well as the small body, the disturbed zone behind the body extends transversely no more than 2 or 3 body radii, a result of significance for the design of spacecraft boom instrumentation.

Parker, L. W.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Higher moment equations and the distribution function of the solar-wind plasma.

Study of the higher-moment equations for a collisionless fully ionized plasma. For a collisionless, heat-conducting plasma, the distribution function f is cylindrically symmetric about the direction of the magnetic field. It is shown that under a certain assumption the fourth moments of f can be expressed as simple functions of lower moments. Thus no higher-moment terms appear in the third-moment equations. The two third-moment equations, which are obtained in a simple form, join other lower-moment equations to form a closed set of moment equations. The new equations can be used to study the thermal anisotropy and the heat flux of the solar-wind proton. A special case of the cylindrically symmetric distribution function f is found to resemble the proton distribution function reconstructed from solar-wind data, and this resemblance justifies the assumption needed for decoupling the moment equations.

Whang, Y. C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Coupled Plasma and Sheath Model for High Density Reactors

We present a coupled plasma and collisionless; sheath model for the simulation of high density plasma processing reactors. Due to inefficiencies in numerical schemes and the resulting computational burden, a coupled multidimensional plasma and sheath simulation has not been possible model for gas mixtures and high density reactors of practical interest. In this work we demonstrate that with a fully implicit algorithm and a refined computational mesh, a self-consistent plasma and sheath simulation is feasible. We discuss the details of the model equations, the importance of ion inertia, and the resulting sheath profiles for argon and chlorine plasmas. We find that at low operating pressures (10-30 mTorr), the charge separation occurs only within a 0.5 mm layer near the surface in a 300 mm inductively coupled plasma etch reactor. A unified model eliminates the use of off-line or loosely coupled sheath models with simplifying assumptions which generally lead to uncertainties in ion flux and sheath electrical properties.

Deepak, Bose↗
NASA NTRS1986

The plasma dynamics of hypersonic spacecraft: Applications of laboratory simulations and active in situ experiments

Attempts to gain an understanding of spacecraft plasma dynamics via experimental investigation of the interaction between artificially synthesized, collisionless, flowing plasmas and laboratory test bodies date back to the early 1960's. In the past 25 years, a number of researchers have succeeded in simulating certain limited aspects of the complex spacecraft-space plasma interaction reasonably well. Theoretical treatments have also provided limited models of the phenomena. Several active experiments were recently conducted from the space shuttle that specifically attempted to observe the Orbiter-ionospheric interaction. These experiments have contributed greatly to an appreciation for the complexity of spacecraft-space plasma interaction but, so far, have answered few questions. Therefore, even though the plasma dynamics of hypersonic spacecraft is fundamental to space technology, it remains largely an open issue. A brief overview is provided of the primary results from previous ground-based experimental investigations and the preliminary results of investigations conducted on the STS-3 and Spacelab 2 missions. In addition, several, as yet unexplained, aspects of the spacecraft-space plasma interaction are suggested for future research.

Stone, N. H.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Connections between comets and plasmas in space

The dynamical processes in the cometary system represent unusual examples of very important, widespread natural phenomena. Topics covered include: (1) the comet as an obstacle in the solar wind; (2) the nature of the plasma flow; (3) collisionless shocks; and (4) plasma processes in the comet tail.

Scarf, F. L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A study of single and binary ion plasma expansion into laboratory-generated plasma wakes

Plasma expansion into the wake of a large rectangular plate immersed in a collisionless, supersonic plasma was investigated in laboratory experiments. The experimental conditions address both single ion and binary ion plasma flows for the case of a body whose size is large in comparison with the Debye length, when the potential difference between the body and the plasma is relatively small. A new plasma source was developed to generate equi-velocity, binary ion plasma flows, which allows access to new parameter space that have previously been unavailable for laboratory studies. Specifically, the new parameters are the ionic mass ratio and the ionic component density ratio. In a series of experiments, a krypton-neon plasma is employed where the ambient density ratio of neon to krypton is varied more than an order of magnitude. The expansion in both the single ion and binary ion plasma cases is limited to early times, i.e., a few ion plasma periods, by the combination of plasma density, plasma drift speed, and vacuum chamber size, which prevented detailed comparison with self-similar theory.

Wright, Kenneth Herbert, Jr.↗