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At least 55 records · Page 3

Diffuse auroral precipitation

The paper summarizes the development of a plausibly coherent view of the self-consistent coupling of convection in the plasma sheet to auroral particle precipitation and the ionosphere. Attention is given to an understanding of the plasma instabilities responsible for diffuse auroral precipitation. The electrostatic ion and electron cyclotron harmonic loss-cone instabilities seem to be the best candidates, although they depend sensitively upon the cold electron density and temperature deep in space on auroral field lines. However, there is little or no experimental or theoretical information about these parameters. For this reason, further theoretical progress on cyclotron harmonic instabilities will be limited until the cold electron temperature is known. Also necessary are a complete phenomenological understanding of ion harmonic modes and a modeling of the cold electron distribution on auroral field lines.

Ashour-Abdalla, M.↗

Linear analysis of ion cyclotron interaction in a multicomponent plasma

The mechanism by which hot anisotropic protons generate electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves in a plasma containing cold H(+) and He(+) ions is quantitatively studied. Linear growth rates (both temporal and spatial) are computed for different plasma parameters: concentration, temperature,and anisotropy of cold He(+) ions and of hot protons. It is shown that: (1) for parameters typical of the geostationary altitude the maximum growth rates are not drastically changed when a small proportion (about 1 to 20 percent) of cold He(+) ions is present; (2) because of the important cyclotron absorption by thermal He(+) ions in the vicinity of the He(+) gyrofrequency, waves which could resonate with the bulk of the He(+) distribution cannot be generated. Therefore quasi-linear effects, in a homogeneous medium at least, cannot be responsible for the heating of He(+) ions which is often observed in conjunction with ion cyclotron waves. The variation of growth rate versus wave number is also studied for its importance in selecting suitable parameters in numerical simulation experiments.

Gendrin, R.↗

Monte Carlo modeling of large-scale ion-conic generation

Cyclotron resonance with observed electric field fluctuations is demonstrated to be responsible for production of the oxygen ion conics that are observed by the Dynamics Explorer 1 satellite in the central plasma sheet region of the earth's auroral zone. The ion velocity distribution is described by a quasi-linear diffusion equation which is solved using the Monte Carlo technique. The acceleration produced by the observed wave spectrum agrees well with the ion observations, in both form and magnitude.

Retterer, J. M.↗

Neutron Response of the EJ-254 Boron-Loaded Plastic Scintillator

Organic scintillators doped with capture agents provide a detectable signal for neutrons over a broad energy range. This work characterizes the fast and slow neutron response of EJ-254, an organic plastic scintillator with 5 loading by weight. For fast neutrons, the primary mechanism for light generation in organic scintillators is n-p elastic scattering. To study the fast neutron response, the proton light yield of EJ-254 was measured at the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Using a broad-spectrum neutron source and a double time-of-flight technique, the EJ-254 proton light yield was obtained over the energy range of approximately 270 keV to 4.5 MeV and determined to be in agreement with other plastic scintillators comprised of the same polymer base. To isolate the slow neutron response, an AmBe source with polyethylene moderator was made incident on the EJ-254 scintillator surrounded by an array of EJ-309 observation detectors. Events in the EJ-254 target coincident with the signature 477.6 keV γ ray (resulting from de-excitation of the residual 7Li nucleus following boron neutron capture) were identified. Pulse shape discrimination was used to evaluate the temporal differences in the response of EJ-254 scintillation signals arising from γ-ray and fast/slow neutron interactions. Clear separation between γ-ray and fast neutrons signals was not achieved and the neutron capture feature was observed to overlap both the γ-ray and fast neutron bands. Taking into account the electron light nonproportionality, the neutron capture light yield in EJ-254 was determined to be 89.4±1.1 keVee.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The role of electron-scale turbulence in the JET tokamak: experiments and modelling

Dedicated electron heat transport experiments have been carried out in L- and H-mode Deuterium plasmas of the JET-ILW tokamak to identify the amount of electron heat carried by electron-scale electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes. Ion cyclotron resonance heating at different positions has been used to probe the response of the electron temperature inverse gradient length R/L Te to changes in electron heat flux qe, while different amounts of neutral beam heating allowed to scan the ratio of ion to electron temperature T e /T i , which is a key parameter for the onset of ETGs. Results indicate a steepening of the normalized qe vs R/L Te curve above R/LT e ~ 8 for T e /T i ≤ 1, suggestive of the ETG onset. Ion-scale gyro-kinetic (GK) simulations match the ion heat flux and the low-R/L Te part of the qe curve, but do not reproduce such steepening at high R/L Te . Multi-scale GK simulations covering both ion and electron scales and including one impurity bundling light and heavy species indicate an ETG contribution only for R/L Te values larger than the experimental ones. Sensitivity studies of such result are difficult to achieve due to limitation in numerical resources. The quasi-linear TGLF model has been used for sensitivity studies. With the same bundled impurity as the GK multi-scale, TGLF shows the qe steepening at much larger R/L Te values than in experiment, but when using the real mix of light impurities neglecting the heavy impurities, TGLF gets closer to the experimental results. Profile simulations with TGLF including both light and heavy impurities show over-prediction of T e profiles and in some cases also of density, but good T i predictions, confirming issues with the model electron stiffness for these plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory/BATSE observations of energetic electrons scattered by cyclotron resonance with waves from powerful VLF transmitters

To obtain a better understanding of the wave-particle mechanisms responsible for the loss of electrons from the radiation belts, energetic electron data from the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) was studied. Powerful ground-based VLF transmitters resonantly scatter electrons from the inner radiation belt onto trajectories from which they precipitate into the atmosphere as they drift eastward. 563 instances in which the satellite traversed a cloud of energetic electrons which had been scattered into quasi-trapped trajectories were identified. From the longitude distribution, it was concluded that waves from the VLF transmitter NWC at 114 deg E are the origin of 257 of the events, and waves from UMSat 44 deg E related to 45 more. In another 177 cases the electrons had drifted from the longitude of these transmitters to a location in the western hemisphere. The previously reported seasonal variation in the frequency of occurrence of cyclotron resonance interaction is confirmed with the continuous coverage provided by GRO. The frequency of occurrence of the cyclotron resonance interactions is largest before sunrise, which we attribute to the diurnal variations in the transmission VLF waves through the ionosphere. For the first time, unique very narrow sheets of electrons occurring in the aftermath of a large geomagnetic storm are reported.

Datlowe, Dayton W.↗

Solution of the linear wave-particle kinetic equation for global modes of arbitrary frequency in a tokamak

The linear response of a plasma to perturbations of arbitrary frequency and wavelength is derived for any axisymmetric magnetized toroidal plasma. An explicit transformation to action-angle coordinates is achieved using orthogonal magnetic coordinates and the Littlejohn Lagrangian, establishing the validity of this result to arbitrary order in normalized Larmor radius. The global resonance condition for compressional modes is clarified in more detail than in previous works, confirming that the poloidal orbit-average of the cyclotron frequency gives the desired result at lowest order in Larmor radius. The global plasma response to the perturbation at each resonance is captured by a poloidal and gyroaverage of the perturbing potential. A “global gyroaveraging” of the potential is a natural by-product of this analysis which takes into account the changing of the magnetic field over an orbit. The resonance condition depends on two arbitrary integers which completely separately capture the effects poloidal non-uniformity and finite Larmor radius in generating sidebands. We learn that poloidal sidebands generated for compressional modes are dominated by the change in gyrofrequency over the orbit, which is very different to shear modes where the gyrofrequency only contributes via a finite Larmor radius effect. This increases the number of bounce harmonics required to compute the linear drive, giving a more complicated resonance map. An example calculation is given comparing resonance of shear and compressional modes in a published DIII-D case.

Compressional↗

A Comprehensive Spectral Analysis of the X-Ray Pulsar 4U 1907+09 from Two Observations with the Suzaku X-Ray Observatory

We present results from two observations of the wind-accreting X-ray pulsar 4U 1907+09 using the Suzaku observatory, The broadband time-averaged spectrum allows us to examine the continuum emission of the source and the cyclotron resonance scattering feature at approx. 19 keV. Additionally, using the narrow CCD response of Suzaku near 6 ke V allows us to study in detail the Fe K bandpass and to quantify the Fe Kp line for this source for the first time. The source is absorbed by fully-covering material along the line of sight with a column density of N(sub H) approx. 2 x 10(exp 22)/sq cm, consistent with a wind accreting geometry, and a high Fe abundance (approx. 3 - 4 x solar). Time and phase-resolved analyses allow us to study variations in the source spectrum. In particular, dips found in the 2006 observation which are consistent with earlier observations occur in the hard X-ray bandpass, implying a variation of the whole continuum rather than occultation by intervening material, while a dip near the end of the 2007 observation occurs mainly in the lower energies implying an increase in NH along the line of sight, perhaps indicating clumpiness in the stellar wind

Rivers, Elizabeth↗

Source of the Bursty Bulk Flow Diffuse Aurora: Electrostatic Cyclotron Harmonic and Whistler Waves in the Coupling of Bursty Bulk Flows to Auroral Precipitation

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler chorus waves are recognized as the two mechanisms responsible for the resonant wave‐particle interactions necessary to precipitate plasma sheet electrons into the ionosphere, producing the diffuse Aurora. Previous work has demonstrated ECH waves dominate electron scattering at L shells >8, while whistler chorus dominates scattering at L shells L < 8. However, we find from Time History of Events and Macroscale (THEMIS) Interactions during Substorms observations of fast flows at L = 12 that oblique whistler chorus emissions play the dominant role in scattering electrons. Previous works have identified whistler‐mode waves within fast flows that are produced by an electron temperature anisotropy Te,⊥/Te,||> 1, consistent with electron betatron acceleration. Here, however, we find whistler chorus emissions throughout an interval of fast flows where Te,⊥/Te,||< 1. Parallel electron beams account for the enhanced parallel electron temperature and serve as the instability mechanism for the whistler chorus. The parallel electron beams and associated cigar‐shaped distributions are consistent with Fermi acceleration at dipolarizations in fast flows. We demonstrate that the scattering efficiency of the whistler chorus exceeds that of ECH waves, which THEMIS also detects during the fast flows. The obliquity of the whistler waves permits efficient scattering of lower‐energy electrons into the diffuse aurora. We conclude that Fermi acceleration of electrons provides one important free‐energy source for the wave‐particle interactions responsible for coupling plasma sheet electrons into the diffuse aurora during substorm conditions.

Wendel, D. E.↗

Soil metabolome response to whole-ecosystem warming at the Spruce and Peatland Responses under Changing Environments experiment

In this study, a suite of complementary environmental geochemical analyses, including NMR and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses of central metabolites, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) of secondary metabolites, and lipidomics, was used to investigate the influence of organic matter (OM) quality on the heterotrophic microbial mechanisms controlling peatland CO2, CH4, and CO2:CH4 porewater production ratios in response to climate warming. Our investigations leverage the Spruce and Peatland Responses under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment, where air and peat warming were combined in a whole-ecosystem warming treatment. We hypothesized that warming would enhance the production of plant-derived metabolites, resulting in increased labile OM inputs to the surface peat, thereby enhancing microbial activity and greenhouse gas production. Because shallow peat is most susceptible to enhanced warming, increases in labile OM inputs to the surface, in particular, are likely to result in significant changes to CO2 and CH4 dynamics and methanogenic pathways. In support of this hypothesis, significant correlations were observed between metabolites and temperature consistent with increased availability of labile substrates, which may stimulate more rapid turnover of microbial proteins. An increase in the abundance of methanogenic genes in response to the increase in the abundance of labile substrates was accompanied by a shift toward acetoclastic and methylotrophic methanogenesis. Our results suggest that as peatland vegetation trends toward increasing vascular plant cover with warming, we can expect a concomitant shift toward increasingly methanogenic conditions and amplified climate–peatland feedbacks.

Wilson, Rachel M.↗

STEREO and Wind Observations of Intense Cyclotron Harmonic Waves at the Earth's Bow Shock and Inside the Magnetosheath

We present the first observations of electron cyclotron harmonic waves at the Earth's bow shock from STEREO and Wind burst waveform captures. These waves are observed at magnetic field gradients at a variety of shock geometries ranging from quasi-parallel to nearly perpendicular along with whistler mode waves, ion acoustic waves, and electrostatic solitary waves. Large amplitude cyclotron harmonic waveforms are also observed in the magnetosheath in association with magnetic field gradients convected past the bow shock. Amplitudes of the cyclotron harmonic waves range from a few tens to more than 500 millivolts/meter peak-peak. A comparison between the short (15 meters) and long (100 meters) Wind spin plane antennas shows a similar response at low harmonics and a stronger response on the short antenna at higher harmonics. This indicates that wavelengths are not significantly larger than 100 meters, consistent with the electron cyclotron radius. Waveforms are broadband and polarizations are distinctively comma-shaped with significant power both perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field. Harmonics tend to be more prominent in the perpendicular directions. These observations indicate that the waves consist of a combination of perpendicular Bernstein waves and field-aligned waves without harmonics. A likely source is the electron cyclotron drift instability which is a coupling between Bernstein and ion acoustic waves. These waves are the most common type of high-frequency wave seen by STEREO during bow shock crossings and magnetosheath traversals and our observations suggest that they are an important component of the high-frequency turbulent spectrum in these regions.

bow shock↗

Interference patterns in the Spacelab 2 plasma wave data - Oblique electrostatic waves generated by the electron beam

During the Spacelab 2 mission the University of Iowa's Plasma Diagnostics Package (PDP) explored the plasma environment around the shuttle. Wideband spectrograms of plasma waves were obtained from the PDP at frequencies of 0-30 kHz and at distances up to 400 m from the shuttle. Strong low-frequency (below 10 kHz) electric field noise was observed in the wideband data during two periods in which an electron beam was ejected from the shuttle. This noise shows clear evidence of interference patterns caused by the finite (3.89 m) antenna length. The low-frequency noise was the most dominant type of noise produced by the ejected electron beam. Analysis of antenna interference patterns generated by these waves permits a determination of the wavelength, the direction of propagation, and the location of the source region. The observed waves have a linear dispersion relation very similar to that of ion acoustic waves. The waves are believed to be oblique ion acoustic or high-order ion cyclotron waves generated by a current of ambient electrons returning to the shuttle in response to the ejected electron beam.

Feng, Wei↗

Refined interpretation of electron temperature response to neutral beam injection at DIII-D

Accurate particle and power deposition profiles of neutral beam injection (NBI) are essential to transport studies, and that information is usually acquired through Monte Carlo simulations with a given collisional model. The deposition process of the energetic beam particles leads to the informative electron temperature (T e ) evolution trajectory, which can be captured by electron cyclotron emission (ECE) system due to its good spatial and temporal resolution. Previously, some work has been done to interpret the T e responses to the pulsed NBI as a linear heating source with Fourier-based techniques, although that approach fell short when the fast ion slowing-down time becomes significant (~100 ms). It has been observed in DIII-D that the modulated NBI pulses (10–50 Hz) reduce local core T e values ~0.1 keV through cold electron dilution in high-T e (>2 keV) plasmas alongside accumulative heating. Here, a novel approach to interpret the T e response to NBI was developed by linearizing and modeling the detailed T e evolution trajectory using coherently averaged ECE data based on the different time scales of the terms in the local power and particle balance equations. The technique does not require absolute calibrations of ECE and is independent of collisional models. The resulting beam deposition profiles show good consistency and reasonable agreement with Monte Carlo calculations based on the atomic data from the Atomic Data and Analysis Structure (ADAS). Local electron density response measured by Thomson scattering (TS) also suggests the same features when the beam pulse is large enough for that diagnostic to resolve. The remaining discrepancies are also discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electrostatic waves and the strong diffusion of magnetospheric electrons

A comprehensive review of electron pitch angle scattering in the magnetosphere and the plasma waves responsible for it is presented, emphasizing the strong diffusion of diffuse auroral electrons by electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic waves. The weak diffusion of energetic radiation belt electrons within the plasmasphere is reviewed briefly. Several new suggestions concerning the quasilinear diffusion from and saturation of electrostatic waves are included.

Kennel, C. F.↗

The Impact of Freeze‐Thaw History on Soil Carbon Response to Experimental Freeze‐Thaw Cycles

Abstract Freeze‐thaw is a disturbance process in cold regions where permafrost soils are becoming vulnerable to temperature fluctuations above 0°C. Freeze‐thaw alters soil physical and biogeochemical properties with implications for carbon persistence and emissions in Arctic landscapes. We examined whether different freeze‐thaw histories in two soil systems led to contrasting biogeochemical responses under a laboratory‐controlled freeze‐thaw incubation. We investigated controls on carbon composition through Fourier‐transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT‐ICR‐MS) to identify nominal carbon oxidation states and relative abundances of aliphatic‐type carbon molecules in both surface and subsurface soils. Soil cores (∼60 cm‐depth) were sampled from two sites in Alaskan permafrost landscapes with different in situ freeze‐thaw characteristics: Healy (>40 freeze‐thaw cycles annually) and Toolik (<15 freeze‐thaw cycles annually). FT‐ICR‐MS was coupled with in situ temperature data and soil properties (i.e., soil texture, mineralogy) to assess (a) differences in soil organic matter composition associated with previous freeze‐thaw history and (b) sensitivity to experimental freeze‐thaw in the extracted cores. Control (freeze‐only) samples showed greater carbon oxidation in Healy soils compared with Toolik, even in lower mineral horizons where freeze‐thaw history was comparable across both sites. Healy showed the most loss of carbon compounds following experimental freeze‐thaw in the lower mineral depths, including a decrease in aliphatics. Toolik soils responded more slowly to freeze‐thaw as shown by intermediary carbon oxidation distributed across multiple carbon compound classes. Variations in the response of permafrost carbon chemistry to freeze‐thaw is an important factor for predicting changes in soil function as permafrost thaws in high northern latitudes.

Rooney, Erin C.↗

First Observation of Cyclotron Radiation from MeV-Scale e ± following Nuclear β Decay

We present an apparatus for detection of cyclotron radiation yielding a frequency-based β ± kinetic energy determination in the 5 keV to 2.1 MeV range, characteristic of nuclear β decays. The cyclotron frequency of the radiating β particles in a magnetic field is used to determine the β energy precisely. Our work establishes the foundation to apply the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique, developed by the Project 8 Collaboration, far beyond the 18-keV tritium endpoint region. We report initial measurements of β – ’s from 6 He and β + ’s from 19 Ne decays to demonstrate the broadband response of our detection system and assess potential systematic uncertainties for β spectroscopy over the full (MeV) energy range. To our knowledge, this is the first direct observation of cyclotron radiation from individual highly relativistic β’s in a waveguide. Furthermore, this work establishes the application of CRES to a variety of nuclei, opening its reach to searches for new physics beyond the TeV scale via precision β-decay measurements.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

How magnetic field can transform a superconductor into a Bose metal

Abstract We discuss whether a simple theory of superconducting stripes coupled by Josephson tunneling can describe a metallic transport, once the coherent tunneling of pairs is suppressed by the magnetic field. For a clean system, the conclusion we reached is negative: the excitation spectrum of preformed pairs consists of Landau levels, and once the magnetic field exceeds a critical value, the transport becomes insulating. As a speculation, we suggest that a Bose metal can exist in disordered systems provided that the disorder is strong enough to localize some pairs. Then the coupling between propagating and localized pairs broadens the Landau levels, resulting in a metallic conductivity. Our model respects the particle–hole symmetry, which leads to a zero Hall response. And intriguingly, the resulting anomalous metallic state has no Drude peak and the spectral weight of the cyclotron resonance vanishes at low temperatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Frequency shifts of ionospheric nfH resonances.

New observational data are analyzed to interpret mechanisms responsible for large positive frequency shifts of Alouette II plasma resonances (corresponding to the first and second electron cyclotron harmonics) relative to frequency values expected from model magnetic field calculations. It is shown that the frequency shifts can be consistently explained by plasma wave dispersion effects combined with sounder transmitter frequency deviation (positive offset of several kilohertz) and a negative offset (several tens of gammas) in the geomagnetic field relative to the model field. Plasma wave dispersion effects are observed on the electron cyclotron second harmonic resonance when it is in the vicinity of the resonance observed near the upper hybrid frequency. The observations suggest that an oblique echo model may be required for interpretation of the electron cyclotron second harmonic resonance.

Benson, R. F.↗