Analogy between electro-magnetic waves in cold unmagnetized plasma and shallow water inertio-gravity waves in geophysical systems

The fundamental dispersion relation of transverse electro-magnetic waves in a cold collisionless plasma is formally equivalent to the two-dimensional dispersion relation of inertio-gravity waves in a rotating shallow water system, where the Coriolis frequency can be identified with the plasma frequency, and the shallow water gravity wave phase speed plays the role of the speed of light. Here we examine this equivalence and compare between the propagation wave mechanisms in these seemingly unrelated physical systems.

Thomson and collisional regimes of in-phase coherent microwave scattering off gaseous microplasmas

The total number of electrons in a classical microplasma can be non-intrusively measured through elastic in-phase coherent microwave scattering (CMS). Here, we establish a theoretical basis for the CMS diagnostic technique with an emphasis on Thomson and collisional scattering in short, thin unmagnetized plasma media. Experimental validation of the diagnostic is subsequently performed via linearly polarized, variable frequency (10.5–12 GHz) microwave scattering off laser induced 1–760 Torr air-based microplasmas (287.5 nm O2 resonant photoionization by ~ 5 ns, < 3 mJ pulses) with diverse ionization and collisional features. Namely, conducted studies include a verification of short-dipole-like radiation behavior, plasma volume imaging via ICCD photography, and measurements of relative phases, total scattering cross-sections, and total number of electrons $$N_{e}$$ N e in the generated plasma filaments following absolute calibration using a dielectric scattering sample. Findings of the paper suggest an ideality of CMS in the Thomson “free-electron” regime—where a detailed knowledge of plasma and collisional properties (which are often difficult to accurately characterize due to the potential influence of inhomogeneities, local temperatures and densities, present species, and so on) is unnecessary to extract $$N_{e}$$ N e from the scattered signal. The Thomson scattering regime of microwaves is further experimentally verified via measurements of the relative phase between the incident electric field and electron displacement.

Electron-Acoustic (Un)Modulated Structures in a Plasma Having (r, q)-Distributed Electrons: Solitons, Super Rogue Waves, and Breathers

The propagation of electron-acoustic waves (EAWs) in an unmagnetized plasma, comprising (r,q)-distributed hot electrons, cold inertial electrons, and stationary positive ions, is investigated. Both the unmodulated and modulated EAWs, such as solitary waves, rogue waves (RWs), and breathers are discussed. The Sagdeev potential approach is employed to determine the existence domain of electron acoustic solitary structures and study the perfectly symmetric planar nonlinear unmodulated structures. Moreover, the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) is derived and its modulated solutions, including first order RWs (Peregrine soliton), higher-order RWs (super RWs), and breathers (Akhmediev breathers and Kuznetsov–Ma soliton) are presented. The effects of plasma parameters and, in particular, the effects of spectral indices r and q, of distribution functions on the characteristics of both unmodulated and modulated EAWs, are examined in detail. In a limited cases, the (r,q) distribution is compared with Maxwellian and kappa distributions. The present investigation may be beneficial to comprehend and predict the modulated and unmodulated electron acoustic structures in laboratory and space plasmas.

On the Multistage Differential Transformation Method for Analyzing Damping Duffing Oscillator and Its Applications to Plasma Physics

The multistage differential transformation method (MSDTM) is used to find an approximate solution to the forced damping Duffing equation (FDDE). In this paper, we prove that the MSDTM can predict the solution in the long domain as compared to differential transformation method (DTM) and more accurately than the modified differential transformation method (MDTM). In addition, the maximum residual errors for DTM and its modification methods (MSDTM and MDTM) are estimated. As a real application to the obtained solution, we investigate the oscillations in a complex unmagnetized plasma. To do that, the fluid govern equations of plasma species is reduced to the modified Korteweg–de Vries–Burgers (mKdVB) equation. After that, by using a suitable transformation, the mKdVB equation is transformed into the forced damping Duffing equation.

Approximate Crank–Nicolson Algorithm with Higher-Order PML Implementation for Plasma Simulation in Open Region Problems

By incorporating the higher-order concept with the perfectly matched later (PML) scheme, unconditionally stable approximate Crank–Nicolson algorithm is proposed for plasma simulation in open region problems. More precisely, the proposed implementation is based on the CN Direct-Splitting (CNDS) procedure for the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) unmagnetized plasma simulation. The unmagnetized plasma can be regarded as frequency-dependent media which can be calculated by the piecewise linear recursive convolution (PLRC) method. The proposed implementation shows the advantages of higher-order concept, CNDS procedure, and PLRC method in terms of improved absorbing performance, enhanced computational efficiency, and outstanding calculation accuracy. Numerical examples are introduced to indicate the effectiveness and efficiency. It can be concluded from results that the proposed scheme shows considerable efficiency, accuracy, absorption, and unconditional stability.

Short-scale quantum kinetic theory including spin–orbit interactions

We present a quantum kinetic theory for spin-1/2 particles, including the spin–orbit interaction, retaining particle dispersive effects to all orders in $$\hbar $$ ħ , based on a gauge-invariant Wigner transformation. Compared to previous works, the spin–orbit interaction leads to a new term in the kinetic equation, containing both the electric and magnetic fields. Like other models with spin–orbit interactions, our model features “hidden momentum”. As an example application, we calculate the dispersion relation for linear electrostatic waves in a magnetized plasma, and electromagnetic waves in a unmagnetized plasma. In the former case, we compare the Landau damping due to spin–orbit interactions to that due to the free current. We also discuss our model in relation to previously published works. Graphic abstract