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At least 649 records · Page 36
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NASA NTRS1995

Turbulence in the solar wind: Kinetic effects

Although a casual look at the fluctuating magnetic and velocity fields in the solar wind may be reminiscent of a chaotic and disordered flow, there is, nonetheless. considerable organization and structure in the temporal and spatial evolution of those fluctuations. Much of that evolution is controlled by processes operating on rather large scales for example, in the inner heliosphere, the fluctuations in magnetic and velocity are highly correlated in the sense of outward propagating Alfven waves. This correlation can be destroyed both in time and distance by the velocity gradients present between fast and slow streams and by other nonlinear processes which stir the medium, producing a turbulent cascade of energy from large to small scales. Many aspects of this turbulent evolution can be described using fluid models; however, at some scale the fluid approximation breaks down and a more detailed paradigm is necessary. The breakdown is evident in the power spectrum of magnetic fluctuations at scales approaching the wavelength of ion cyclotron waves. At those scales, as evident in Mariner 10 and other magnetometer data, the spectrum bends over and the fluctuations damp, possibly heating the ambient plasma. Some evidence for heating of the solar wind is present in the Voyager data. Fluid models can be modified to some extent to incorporate aspects of a kinetic treatment. This is done by modifying the dissipation terms in the fluid equations and by including extra terms, such as the Hall term. As the scale lengths of phenomena shrink further and approach the spatial and temporal scales characteristic of electron phenomena, the fluid description must be abandoned altogether and a fully kinetic treatment is required. One example is the generation of Langmuir solitons produced by the electron beams that generate type 3 solar radio bursts.

Goldstein, M. L.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Arbitrary amplitude dust ion acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized suprathermal dusty plasma

The linear and nonlinear dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) wave propagating obliquely with respect to an external magnetic field is studied in a magnetized complex plasma which consists of a cold ion fluid, superthermal electrons, and static dust particles. The propagation properties of two possible modes (in the linear regime) are investigated. It is found that the electron suprathermality and the electron population decrease the phase velocities of both modes, while obliqueness leads to increase of separation between two modes. An energy-like equation derived to describe the nonlinear evolution of DIA solitary waves. The influences of electron suprathermality, obliqueness, and electron population on the existence domain of solitary waves and the soliton characteristics are examined. It is shown that the existence domain of the DIA soliton and its profile are significantly depending on the deviation of electrons from thermodynamic equilibrium, electrons population, and obliqueness. It is also found that the suprathermal plasma supports the DIA solitons with larger amplitude.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Nonlinear ion modes in a strongly coupled plasma in the presence of nonthermal ion fluids and polarization force

The nonlinear propagation of ion-acoustic (IA) waves in a strongly coupled plasma system containing Maxwellian electrons and nonthermal ions has been theoretically and numerically investigated. The well-known reductive perturbation technique is used to derive both the Burgers and Korteweg−de Vries (KdV) equations. Their shock and solitary wave solutions have also been numerically analyzed in understanding localized electrostatic disturbances. It has been observed that the basic features (viz. polarity, amplitude, width, etc.) of IA waves are significantly modified by the effect of polarization force and other plasma parameters (e.g., the electron-to-ion number density ratio and ion-to-electron temperature ratio). This is a unique finding among all theoretical investigations made before, whose probable implications are discussed in this investigation. The implications of the results obtained from this investigation may be useful in understanding the wave propagation in both space and laboratory plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Continuum gyrokinetic simulations of edge plasmas in single-null geometries

The first continuum gyrokinetic calculations of electrostatic ion scale turbulence are presented for the case of a diverted tokamak geometry. The simulation model solves the long-wavelength limit of the full-F gyrokinetic equation for ion species coupled to the quasi-neutrality equation for electrostatic potential variations, where a fluid model is used for an electron response. Furthermore, in order to facilitate simulations of highly-anisotropic microturbulence in the presence of strong magnetic shear and a magnetic X-point, a numerical algorithm utilizing a locally field-aligned multiblock coordinate system has been developed and implemented in the 5D finite-volume code COGENT. In this approach, the toroidal direction is divided into blocks, such that within each block, the cells are field-aligned and a non-matching grid interface is allowed at block boundaries. The toroidal angle corresponds to the “coarse” field-aligned coordinate, whereas the poloidal cross section, comprised of the radial and poloidal directions, is finely gridded to resolve short-scale perpendicular turbulence structures and to support accurate re-mapping (interpolation) at block boundaries. The 5D simulations explore cross-separatrix ion scale turbulence in the presence of a self-consistent radial electric field and address the effects of magnetic-shear stabilization in the X-point region.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dynamo Effect and Turbulence in Hydrodynamic Weyl Metals

The dynamo effect is a class of macroscopic phenomena responsible for generating and maintaining magnetic fields in astrophysical bodies. It hinges on the hydrodynamic three-dimensional motion of conducting gases and plasmas that achieve high hydrodynamic and/or magnetic Reynolds numbers due to the large length scales involved. The existing laboratory experiments modeling dynamos are challenging and involve large apparatuses containing conducting fluids subject to fast helical flows. Here we propose that electronic solid-state materials—in particular, hydrodynamic metals—may serve as an alternative platform to observe some aspects of the dynamo effect. Motivated by recent experimental developments, this Letter focuses on hydrodynamic Weyl semimetals, where the dominant scattering mechanism is due to interactions. We derive Navier-Stokes equations along with equations of magnetohydrodynamics that describe the transport of a Weyl electron-hole plasma appropriate in this regime. We estimate the hydrodynamic and magnetic Reynolds numbers for this system. The latter is a key figure of merit of the dynamo mechanism. We show that it can be relatively large to enable observation of the dynamo-induced magnetic field bootstrap in an experiment. Lastly, we generalize the simplest dynamo instability model—the Ponomarenko dynamo—to the case of a hydrodynamic Weyl semimetal and show that the chiral anomaly term reduces the threshold magnetic Reynolds number for the dynamo instability.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS1975

Kinetic description of ionospheric dynamics in the three-fluid approximation

Conservation equations are developed in the three-fluid approximation for general application problems of ionospheric dynamics in the altitude region 90 km to 800 km for all geographic locations. These equations are applied to a detailed study of auroral E region neutral winds and their relationship to ionospheric plasma motions.

Comfort, R. H.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Two-fluid turbulence including electron inertia

We present a full two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) description for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure, and electron inertia. According to this description, each plasma species introduces a new spatial scale: the ion inertial length λ{sub i} and the electron inertial length λ{sub e}, which are not present in the traditional MHD description. In the present paper, we seek for possible changes in the energy power spectrum in fully developed turbulent regimes, using numerical simulations of the two-fluid equations in two-and-a-half dimensions. We have been able to reproduce different scaling laws in different spectral ranges, as it has been observed in the solar wind for the magnetic energy spectrum. At the smallest wavenumbers where plain MHD is valid, we obtain an inertial range following a Kolmogorov k{sup −5∕3} law. For intermediate wavenumbers such that λ{sub i}{sup −1}≪k≪λ{sub e}{sup −1}, the spectrum is modified to a k{sup −7∕3} power-law, as has also been obtained for Hall-MHD neglecting electron inertia terms. When electron inertia is retained, a new spectral region given by k>λ{sub e}{sup −1} arises. The power spectrum for magnetic energy in this region is given by a k{sup −11∕3} power law. Finally, when the terms of electron inertia are retained, we study the self-consistent electric field. Our results are discussed and compared with those obtained in the solar wind observations and previous simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear electron acoustic cyclotron waves in presence of uniform magnetic field

Nonlinear electron acoustic cyclotron waves (EACW) are studied in a quasineutral plasma in presence of uniform magnetic field. The fluid model is used to describe the dynamics of two temperature electron species in a stationary charge neutral inhomogeneous background. In long wavelength limit, it is shown that the linear electron acoustic wave is modified by the uniform magnetic field similar to that of electrostatic ion cyclotron wave. Nonlinear equations for these waves are solved by using Lagrangian variables. Results show that the spatial solitary wave-like structures are formed due to nonlinearities and dispersions. These structures transiently grow to larger amplitude unless dispersive effect is actively operative and able to arrest this growth. We have found that the wave dispersion originated from the equilibrium inhomogeneity through collective effect and is responsible for spatiotemporal structures. Weak dispersion is not able to stop the wave collapse and singular structures of EACW are formed. Relevance of the results in the context of laboratory and space plasmas is discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Drift wave dispersion relation for arbitrarily collisional plasma

The standard local linear analysis of drift waves in a plasma slab is generalized to be valid for arbitrarily collisional electrons by considering the electrons to be governed by the drift-kinetic equation with a BGK-like (Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook) collision operator. The obtained dispersion relation reduces to that found from collisionless kinetic theory when the collision frequency is zero. Electron temperature fluctuations must be retained in the standard fluid analysis in order to obtain good quantitative agreement with our general solution in the highly collisional limit. Any discrepancies between the fluid solution and our general solution in this limit are attributed to the limitations of the BGK collision operator. The maximum growth rates in both the collisional and collisionless limits are comparable and are both on the order of the fundamental drift wave frequency. The main role of the destabilizing mechanism is found to be in determining the parallel wave number at which the maximum growth rate will occur. The parallel wave number corresponding to the maximum growth rate is set by the wave-particle resonance condition in the collisionless limit and transitions to being set by the real frequency being on the order of the rate for electrons to diffuse a parallel wavelength in the collisional limit.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quasilinear theory of general electromagnetic fluctuations including discrete particle effects for magnetized plasmas: General analysis

The general quasilinear Fokker–Planck kinetic equation for the gyrophase-averaged plasma particle distribution functions in magnetized plasmas is derived, making no restrictions on the energy of the particles and on the frequency of the electromagnetic fluctuations and avoiding the often made Coulomb approximation of the electromagnetic interactions. Here, the inclusion of discrete particle effects breaks the dichotomy of nonlinear kinetic plasma theory divided into the test particle and the test fluctuation approximation because it provides expression of both the non-collective and collective electromagnetic fluctuation spectra in terms of the plasma particle distribution functions. Within the validity of the quasilinear approach, the resulting full quasilinear transport equation can be regarded as a determining nonlinear equation for the time evolution of the plasma particle distribution functions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Center for Gyrokinetic/MHD Hybrid Simulation of Energetic Particle Physics in Toroidal Plasmas (Final Report)

At Colorado University-Boulder the primary task is to extend our gyrokinetic Particle-in-Cell simulation of tokamak micro-turbulence and transport to the area of energetic particle physics. We have implemented a gyrokinetic ion/massless fluid electron hybrid model in the global δƒ-PIC code GEM, and benchmarked the code with analytic results on the thermal ion radiative damping rate of Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAE) and with mode frequency and spatial structure from eigenmode analysis. We also performed nonlinear simulations of both a single-n mode (n is the toroidal mode number) and multiple-n modes, and in the case of single-n, benchmarked the code on the saturation amplitude vs. particle collision rate with analytical theory. Most simulations use the f method for both ions species, but we have explored the full-ƒ method for energetic particles in cases where the burst amplitude of the excited instabilities is large as to cause significant re-distribution or loss of the energetic particles. We used the hybrid model to study the stability of high-n TAEs in ITER. Our simulations show that the most unstable modes in ITER lie in the rage of 10 < n < 20. Thermal ion pressure effect and alpha particles non-perturbative effect are important in determining the mode radial location and stability threshold. The thermal ion Landau damping rate and radiative damping rate from the simulations are compared with analytical estimates. The thermal ion Landau damping is the dominant damping mechanism. Plasma elongation has a strong stabilizing effect on the alpha driven TAEs. The central alpha particle pressure threshold for the most unstable n=15 mode is about β α (0) = 0.7% for the fully shaped ITER equilibrium. We also carried nonlinear simulations of the most unstable n = 15 mode and found that the saturation amplitude for the nominal ITER discharge is too low to cause large redistribution or loss of alpha particles. To include kinetic electron effects in the hybrid model we have studied a kinetic electron closure scheme for the fluid electron model. The most important element of the closure scheme is a complete Ohm’s law for the parallel electric field E || , derived by combining the quasi-neutrality condition, the Ampere’s equation and the v || moment of the gyrokinetic equations. A discretization method for the closure scheme is studied in detail for a three-dimensional shear-less slab plasma. It is found that for long-wavelength shear Alfvén waves the kinetic closure scheme is both more accurate and robust than the previous GEM algorithm using the split-scheme, whereas for the ion-gradient-driven instability the previous algorithm is more efficient. This kinetic electron closure scheme will be implemented in GEM in the future. We have studied the beam driven Reverse Shear Alfven Eigenmodes (RSAE) observed in DIII-D discharge 142111. For this purpose a new scheme for obtaining the electric potential is implemented, i.e., by solving the gyrokinetic moment (GKM) equation, which is essentially the equation for $∂\phi/∂t$ used in GEM’s split-weight scheme, and then integrating in time. Due to charge-neutrality the ExB motions of the equilibrium densities of all species cancel each other and do not cause charge separation if there is no finite Larmor radius effect. The advantage of solving the GKM equation is that this lowest-order cancellation can be made explicit. The GKM approach is found to be more accurate and robust. GEM simulations have reproduced many features of RSAE seen in the experiment, such as frequency chirping and the chirping range. It has been reported by other simulation codes that the shearing direction of the mode structure in the poloidal plane disagrees with observation. We found that the mode structure, including the shearing in the poloidal plane, is in general sensitive to the beam distribution. Using the same beam density profile as in other codes but with a slowing-down distribution in velocity, GEM simulations reproduce the mode shearing direction seen in the experiment. We have carried out extensive nonlinear simulations of RSAE.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Monte Carlo implementation of a guiding-center Fokker-Planck kinetic equation

A Monte Carlo method for the collisional guiding-center Fokker-Planck kinetic equation is derived in the five-dimensional guiding-center phase space, where the effects of magnetic drifts due to the background magnetic field nonuniformity are included. It is shown that, in the limit of a homogeneous magnetic field, our guiding-center Monte Carlo collision operator reduces to the guiding-center Monte Carlo Coulomb operator previously derived by Xu and Rosenbluth [Phys. Fluids B 3, 627 (1991)]. Applications of the present work will focus on the collisional transport of energetic ions in complex nonuniform magnetized plasmas in the large mean-free-path (collisionless) limit, where magnetic drifts must be retained.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Unsupervised discovery of nonlinear plasma physics using differentiable kinetic simulations

Plasma supports collective modes and particle–wave interactions that lead to complex behaviour in, for example, inertial fusion energy applications. While plasma can sometimes be modelled as a charged fluid, a kinetic description is often crucial for studying nonlinear effects in the higher-dimensional momentum–position phase space that describes the full complexity of the plasma dynamics. We create a differentiable solver for the three-dimensional partial-differential equation describing the plasma kinetics and introduce a domain-specific objective function. Using this framework, we perform gradient-based optimization of neural networks that provide forcing function parameters to the differentiable solver given a set of initial conditions. We apply this to an inertial-fusion-relevant configuration and find that the optimization process exploits a novel physical effect.

plasma nonlinear phenomena↗
DOE OSTI2026

Emergent viscous hydrodynamics from a single quantum particle

We investigate an explicit example of how spatial decoherence can lead to hydrodynamic behavior in the late-time, long-wavelength regime of open quantum systems. We focus on the case of a single nonrelativistic quantum particle linearly coupled to a thermal bath of noninteracting harmonic oscillators at temperature T , a la Caldeira and Leggett. Taking advantage of decoherence in the position representation, we expand the reduced density matrix in powers of the off-diagonal spatial components, so that high-order terms are suppressed at late times. Truncating the resulting power series at second order leads to a set of dissipative transient hydrodynamic equations similar to the nonrelativistic limit of equations widely used in simulations of the quark-gluon plasma formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Transport coefficients are directly determined by the damping constant γ , which quantifies the influence of the environment. The asymptotic limit of our hydrodynamic equations reduces to the celebrated Navier-Stokes equations for a compressible fluid in the presence of a drag force. Furthermore, our results shed new light on the onset of hydrodynamic behavior in open quantum systems where a system with few degrees of freedom is coupled to a large thermal environment.

Hydrodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Parameter space for magnetization effects in high-energy-density plasmas

Magnetic fields are well known to affect the evolution of fluids via the J × B force, where J is the current density and B is the magnetic field. This force leads to the influence of magnetic fields on hydrodynamics (magnetohydrodynamics). Magnetic fields are often neglected in modeling of high-energy-density plasmas, since J × B is very small compared with the plasma pressure gradients. However, many experiments lie in a separate part of parameter space where the plasma is indirectly affected via magnetization of the heat flux and charged particle transport. This is true even for initially unmagnetized plasmas, since misaligned density and temperature gradients can self-generate magnetic fields. By comparing terms in the induction equation, we go on to estimate the regions of parameter space where these self-generated fields are strong enough to affect the hydrodynamics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Group velocity and causality in standard relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics

Group velocity of electromagnetic waves in plasmas derived by standard relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics equations is superluminal. If we assume that the group velocity represents the propagation velocity of a signal, we have to worry about the causality problem. That is, some acausal phenomena may be induced, such as information transportation to the absolute past and a spontaneous decrease in the entropy. Here, we tried to find the acausal phenomena using standard relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics numerical simulations in the suggested situation of the acausal phenomena. The calculation results showed that even in such situations no acausal effect happens. The numerical result with respect to the velocity limit of the information transportation is consistent with a linear theory of wave train propagation. Our results assure that we can use these equations without the problems of acausal phenomena.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effects of finite beam and plasma temperature on the growth rate of a two-stream free electron laser with background plasma

A fluid theory is used to derive the dispersion relation of two-stream free electron laser (TSFEL) with a magnetic planar wiggler pump in the presence of background plasma (BP). The effect of finite beams and plasma temperature on the growth rate of a TSFEL has been verified. The twelve order dispersion equation has been solved numerically. Three instabilities, FEL along with the TS and TS-FEL instabilities occur simultaneously. The analysis in the case of cold BP shows that when the effect of the beam temperature is taken into account, both instable bands of wave-number and peak growth rate in the TS instability increase, but peak growth of the FEL and TS-FEL instabilities decreases. Thermal motion of the BP causes to diminish the TS instability and it causes to decrease the FEL and TS-FEL instabilities. By increasing the beam densities and lowering initial velocities (in the collective Raman regime), growth rate of instabilities increases; however, it has opposite behavior in the Campton regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Longitudinal oscillations in a non-uniform spatially dispersive plasma

Longitudinal oscillations of the electron fluid in the hydrodynamic model of a metal are examined with pressure effects taken into account. It is well-known that this entails spatial dispersion. The equilibrium electron number density is taken to be non-uniform and a non-self-adjoint fourth order differential equation obeyed by the electric potential is derived. A velocity potential necessary for the description of sound waves is introduced in the standard fashion and the generalized version of Bloch orthogonality appropriate to a non-uniform background is deduced. We observe a duality between electric and velocity potentials in the sense that the respective differential operators are adjoint to each other. The spectrum is calculated in the special case of an exponential profile for the equilibrium electron number density. The surface plasmons are connected with the analytic properties of the scattering amplitude in the complex plane. The phase shift at threshold is expressed in terms of the number of surface plasmon modes via an expression reminiscent of Levinson’s statement in quantum mechanics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗