High-frequency Magnetic Fluctuations in Space Plasmas and the Role of Electron Landau Damping

While low-frequency plasma fluctuations in the interplanetary space have been successfully described in the framework of classical turbulence, high-frequency fluctuations still represent a challenge for theoretical models. At these scales, kinetic plasma processes are at work, but although some of them have been identified in spacecraft measurements, their global effects on observable quantities are sometimes not fully understood. In this paper we present a new framework to the aim of describing the observed magnetic energy spectrum and directly identify in the data the presence of Landau damping as the main collisionless dissipative process in the solar wind.

Одномерное квазилинейное уравнение для описания генерации токов увлечения в плазме токамака геликонами

A quasi-linear equation which allows describing evolution of electron distribution function and generation of non-inductive currents by helicons is obtained. It is shown that in the analysed case the Fokker-Planck equation can be approximated by a one-dimensional equation in the longitudinal electron velocity space with a diffusion coefficient proportional to the helicon power absorbed by electrons due to Landau damping.

The Role of Longitudinal Polarizations in Horndeski and Macroscopic Gravity: Introducing Gravitational Plasmas

We discuss some general and relevant features of longitudinal gravitational modes in Horndeski gravity and their interaction with matter media. Adopting a gauge-invariant formulation, we clarify how massive scalar and vector fields can induce additional transverse and longitudinal excitations, resulting in breathing, vector, and longitudinal polarizations. We review, then, the interaction of standard gravitational waves with a molecular medium, outlining the emergence of effective massive gravitons, induced by the net quadrupole moment due to molecule deformation. Finally, we investigate the interaction of the massive mode in Horndeski gravity with a noncollisional medium, showing that Landau damping phenomenon can occur in the gravitational sector as well. That allows us to introduce the concept of “gravitational plasma”, where inertial forces associated with the background field play the role of cold ions in electromagnetic plasma.

Characteristics of collisional damping of surface ion-acoustic mode in Divertor Plasma Simulator-2 (DiPS-2)

The dissipation of ion-acoustic surface waves propagating in a semi-bounded and collisional plasma which has a boundary with vacuum is theoretically investigated and this result is used for the analysis of edge-relevant plasma simulated by Divertor Plasma Simulator-2 (DiPS-2). The collisional damping of the surface wave is investigated for weakly ionized plasmas by comparing the collisionless Landau damping with the collisional damping as follows: (1) the ratio of ion temperature $({T_i})$ to electron temperature $({T_e})$ should be very small for the weak collisionality $({T_i}/{T_e} \ll 1)$ ; (2) the effect of collisionless Landau damping is dominant for the small parallel wavenumber, and the decay constant is given as $\gamma \approx{-} \sqrt {\mathrm{\pi }/2} {k_\parallel }{\lambda _{De}}\omega _{pi}^2/{\omega _{pe}}$ ; and (3) the collisional damping dominates for the large parallel wavenumber, and the decay constant is given as $\gamma \approx{-} {\nu _{in}}/16$ , where ${\nu _{in}}$ is the ion–neutral collisional frequency. An experimental simulation of the above theoretical prediction has been done in the argon plasma of DiPS-2, which has the following parameters: plasma density ${n_e} = (\textrm{2--9)} \times \textrm{1}{\textrm{0}^{11}}\;\textrm{c}{\textrm{m}^{ - 3}}$ , ${T_e} = 3.7- 3.8\;\textrm{eV}$ , ${T_i} = 0.2- 0.3\;\textrm{eV}$ and collision frequency ${\nu _{in}} = 23- 127\;\textrm{kHz}$ . Although the wavelength should be specified with the given parameters of DiPS-2, the collisional damping is found to be $\gamma = ( - 0.9\;\textrm{to}\; - 5) \times {10^4}\;\textrm{rad}\;{\textrm{s}^{ - 1}}$ for ${k_\parallel }{\lambda _{De}} = 10$ , while the Landau damping is found to be $\gamma = ( - 4\;\textrm{to}\; - 9) \times {10^4}\;\textrm{rad}\;{\textrm{s}^{ - 1}}$ for ${k_\parallel }{\lambda _{De}} = 0.1$ .

Fluid Energy Cascade Rate and Kinetic Damping: New Insight from 3D Landau-fluid Simulations

Using an exact law for incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD) turbulence, the energy cascade rate is computed from three-dimensional HMHD-CGL (biadiabatic ions and isothermal electrons) and Landau-fluid numerical simulations that feature different intensities of Landau damping over a broad range of wavenumbers, typically 0.05 ≲ k ⊥ d i ≲ 100. Using three sets of cross-scale simulations where turbulence is initiated at large, medium, and small scales, the ability of the fluid energy cascade to “sense” the kinetic Landau damping at different scales is tested. The cascade rate estimated from the exact law and the dissipation calculated directly from the simulation are shown to reflect the role of Landau damping in dissipating energy at all scales, with an emphasis on the kinetic ones. This result provides new prospects on using exact laws for simplified fluid models to analyze dissipation in kinetic simulations and spacecraft observations, and new insights into theoretical description of collisionless magnetized plasmas.

Effects of Landau Damping and Collision on Stimulated Raman Scattering with Various Phase-Space Distributions

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is one of the main instabilities affecting the success of the fusion ignition. Here, we study the relationship between Raman growth and Landau damping with various distribution functions combining the analytic formulas and Vlasov simulations. The Landau damping obtained by Vlasov-Poisson simulation and Raman growth rate obtained by Vlasov-Maxwell simulation are anti-correlated, which is consistent with our theoretical analysis quantitatively. Maxwellian distribution, flattened distribution, and bi-Maxwellian distribution are studied in detail, which represent three typical stages of SRS. We have also demonstrated the effects of plateau width, hot-electron fraction, hot-to-cold electron temperature ratio, and collisional damping on the Landau damping and growth rate. It gives us a deep understanding of SRS and possible ways to mitigate SRS through manipulating distribution functions to a high Landau damping regime.

Tailoring plasmon excitations in $$\alpha -{\mathcal {T}}_3$$ armchair nanoribbons

We have calculated and investigated the electronic states, dynamical polarization function and the plasmon excitations for $$\alpha -{\mathcal {T}}_3$$ α - T 3 nanoribbons with armchair-edge termination. The obtained plasmon dispersions are found to depend significantly on the number of atomic rows across the ribbon and the energy gap which is also determined by the nanoribbon geometry. The bandgap appears to have the strongest effect on both the plasmon dispersions and their Landau damping. We have determined the conditions when relative hopping parameter $$\alpha $$ α of an $$\alpha -{\mathcal {T}}_3$$ α - T 3 lattice has a strong effect on the plasmons which makes our material distinguished from graphene nanoribbons. Our results for the electronic and collective properties of $$\alpha -{\mathcal {T}}_3$$ α - T 3 nanoribbons are expected to find numerous applications in the development of the next-generation electronic, nano-optical and plasmonic devices.

Comparison between the Cauchy problem and the scattering problem for the Landau damping in the Vlasov-HMF equation

We analyze the analytic Landau damping problem for the Vlasov-HMF equation, by fixing the asymptotic behavior of the solution. We use a new method for this “scattering problem”, closer to the one used for the Cauchy problem. In this way we are able to compare the two results, emphasizing the different influence of the plasma echoes in the two approaches. In particular, we prove a non-perturbative result for the scattering problem.