Electron captures by positrons from hydrogenic ions in nonideal classical plasmas

In nonideal classical plasmas, the electron captures by positrons from hydrogenic ions are investigated. An effective pseudopotential model taking into account the plasma screening effects and collective effects is applied to describe the interaction potential in nonideal plasmas. The classical Bohr-Lindhard model has been applied to obtain the electron capture radius and electron capture probability. The modified hyperbolic trajectory method is applied to the motion of the projectile positron in order to visualize the electron capture probability as a function of the impact parameter, nonideal plasma parameter, projectile velocity, and plasma parameters. The results show that the electron capture probability in nonideal plasmas is always greater than that in ideal plasmas descried by the Debye-Hückel potential, i.e., the collective effect increases the electron capture probability. It is also found that the collective effect is decreased with increasing the projectile velocity. Received 21 January 2000 and Received in final form 27 April 2000     

Dynamic plasma screening effects on low-energy bremsstrahlung emission in nonideal plasmas

The dynamic screening effects on the low-energy electron–ion bremsstrahlung process are investigated for both the soft and hard photon radiations in nonideal plasmas. The impact-parameter analysis is employed to obtain the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section as a function of the impact parameter, projectile energy, radiation photon energy, thermal energy, and Debye length. The results show that the dynamic screening effect on the bremsstrahlung radiation is found to be more significant for distant encounters. In addition, the dynamic screening effect is found to be more important for the soft photon radiation and decreases with increasing the radiation photon energy.     

Effects of magnetic field and temperature on the nonrelativistic bremsstrahlung process in magnetized anisotropic plasmas

The magnetic field and thermal effects on the nonrelativistic electron-ion bremsstrahlung process are investigated in magnetized anisotropic plasmas. The effective electron-ion interaction potential is obtained in the presence of an external magnetic field. Using the Born approximation for the initial and final states of the projectile electron, the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section and bremsstrahlung emission rate are obtained as functions of the electron energy, radiation photon energy, magnetic field strength, plasma temperature, and Debye length. It is shown that the effects of the magnetic field enhance the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section for low plasma temperatures and, however, suppress the bremsstrahlung cross section for high plasma temperatures. It is also shown that the magnetic field effects diminish the bremsstrahlung emission rate in magnetized high temperature plasmas.     

Quantum effects on electron-proton bremsstrahlung spectrum in a two-component plasma

The electron-proton low energy bremsstrahlung process is investigated in a two-component plasma. The corrected Kelbg potential taking into account the quantum effects is applied to describe the electron-proton interaction potential in a two-component plasma. The straight-line trajectory method is applied to the motion of the projectile electron in order to investigate the variation of the bremsstrahlung cross-section as a function of the scaled impact parameter, thermal de Broglie wavelength, projectile energy, and photon energy. The results show that the quantum-mechanical effects decrease the bremsstrahlung cross-sections when the de Broglie wavelength (λ) is greater than the Bohr radius (a₀). It is also found that the quantum effects are important only for the region of impact parameters b < 3a ₀. Received 13 March 2001     

Dynamic non-Maxwellian screening effects on elastic collisions in Lorentzian plasmas

The dynamic plasma screening and non-Maxwellian effects on elastic electron-ion collisions are investigated in generalized Lorentzian distribution plasmas. The eikonal is employed to obtain the eikonal phase as a function of the spectral index, impact parameter, collision energy, thermal energy, and Debye length. The result shows that the non-Maxwellian effect suppresses the eikonal phase. It is found that the dynamic screening effect significantly enhances the elastic collision cross section for the low thermal energy case. In addition, the eikonal collision cross section is increased by the non-Maxwellian effect.     

Electrical Conductivity of Nonideal Quasi-Metallic Plasmas

Electrical conductivity formulas are derived from first principles for fully ionized nonideal plasmas. The theory is applicable to an electron-ion system with a 1) Maxwell electron distribution with an arbitrary interaction parameter ? = Ze2n1/3/KT (ratio of the mean coulomb interaction and thermal energies) and 2) Fermi electron distribution with an interaction parameter ? = Ze2n1/3h?2m-1 n2/3 (ratio of the coulomb interaction and Fermi energies). The momentum relaxation time of the electrons in the plasma is calculated based on plane electron wave functions interacting with the continuum oscillations (plasma waves) through a shielded coulomb potential Us(r) = esee exp (-r/?s)/r, which takes into account both electron-ion interactions (s = i) and electron-electron interactions (s = e). It is shown that the resulting conductivity formulas are applicable to higher densities, for which the ideal plasma conductivity theory breaks down because the Debye radius loses its physical meaning as a shielding length and upper impact parameter. The conductivity obtained for classical plasma is of the form ?c = ?c*(KT)3/2/m1/2e2 and agrees with the ideal plasma conductivity formula with respect to the temperature and density dependence for ?/Z ? 0, but its magnitude is significantly reduced as ?/Z increases. For quantum plasmas, the conductivity obtained is of the form ?Q = ?Q*h3n/m2Ze2, which shows that the degenerate plasma behaves like a low-temperature metal.     

Nonuniform charge distribution effects on bremsstrahlung emission in drifting dusty plasmas

The effect of the nonuniform charge distribution due to the ion flow on the ion–dust grain bremsstrahlung process is investigated in dusty plasmas. The impact-parameter analysis is applied to the motion of the projectile ion in order to investigate the variation of the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section as a function of the impact parameter, Debye length, Mach number, radiation photon energy, and projectile energy. The result shows that the nonuniform charge distribution effect strongly enhances the bremsstrahlung cross section. It is also found that the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section decreases with increasing the Debye length.     

Quantum effects on elastic collisions in a two-component plasma

Eikonal method is applied to investigate the quantum effects on elastic electron–ion collisions in a two-component plasma. An effective Kelbg potential model taking into account the classical effect as well as the quantum-mechanical effect is applied to describe the electron–ion interactions in a two-component plasma. The impact parameter method is applied to represent the path of the projectile electron in order to investigate the variation of the eikonal cross section as a function of the impact parameter, thermal de Broglie wavelength, and projectile energy. In the second-order eikonal approximation, the quantum effects significantly reduce the elastic electron–ion scattering cross section. It is also found that the second-order eikonal phase is caused by the pure quantum mechanical effects.     

Nonthermal effects on the entanglement fidelity for elastic scatterings in Lorentzian plasmas

The nonthermal effects on the entanglement fidelity for the elastic electron-ion scattering are investigated in generalized Lorentzian plasmas. The dynamically screened effective potential and partial wave analysis are employed to obtain the entanglement fidelity in Lorentzian plasmas as a function of the spectral index, collision energy, and plasma parameters. It is shown that the entanglement fidelity increases with decreasing the collision energy, especially, for small Debye radii. It is also shown that the nonthermal effect enhances the entanglement fidelity in Lorentzian plasmas. In addition, it is found that the entanglement fidelity increases with an increase of the plasma temperature.     

Quantum effects on polarization bremsstrahlung from electron-atom collisions in partially ionized dense hydrogen plasmas

The quantum effects on the polarization bremsstrahlung emission due to the low-energy electron-atom collisions are investigated in partially ionized dense hydrogen plasmas. The impact parameter analysis is employed to describe the motion of the projectile electron in order to investigate the variation of the bremsstrahlung emission spectrum as a function of the impact parameter, de Broglie wave length, Debye length, and radiation photon energy. The results show that the quantum effects strongly suppress the polarization bremsstarhlung emission. It is also found that the polarization bremsstarhlung emission cross section shows the maximum value at the position of the Bohr radius. It is interesting to note that the quantum effects are found to be more important than the screening effects in the polarization bremsstarhlung emission.     

Plasma waves in a nonideal plasma

This paper shows how the concepts commonly used for a Debye plasma—Landau damping, collisional damping, short-range and long-range collisions, and plasma waves—must be revised to describe a nonideal electron-ion plasma. The degrees of freedom of a nonideal plasma are divided into collective and individual. The increase and saturation of the fraction of collective degrees of freedom as the coupling constant increases is discussed. The Tatarskii approach for a system of coupled oscillators makes it possible to model the collective degrees of freedom of a nonideal plasma by a set of Langevin oscillators in a thermostat. The correlation energy and the energy of the plasma waves are found. The concepts developed here made it possible to determine the dispersion of the plasma waves and their damping. The effect of damping on the discrepancy between the position of the maximum of the dynamic structure factor and the real part of the solution of the dispersion equation is considered. The effective collision frequency of the individual degrees of freedom (the electrons) is estimated, taking into account both short-range pairwise scattering and scattering at plasma waves. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 880–896 (March 1998)     

Quantum ion acoustic solitary waves in electron-ion plasmas: A Sagdeev potential approach

Linear and nonlinear ion acoustic waves are studied in unmagnetized electron-ion quantum plasmas. Sagdeev potential approach is employed to describe the nonlinear quantum ion acoustic waves. It is found that density dips structures are formed in the subsonic region in a electron-ion quantum plasma case. The amplitude of the nonlinear structures remains constant and the width is broadened with the increase in the quantization of the system. However, the nonlinear wave amplitude is reduced with the increase in the wave Mach number. The numerical results are also presented.     

Electron capture processes in strongly coupled semiclassical plasmas

The electron captures by projectile ions from hydrogenic ions are investigated in strongly coupled semiclassical plasmas. The electron capture radius by the projectile ion is obtained by the effective screened pseudopotential model taking into account both the plasma screening and quantum effects. The semiclassical version of the Bohr-Lindhard method is applied to obtain the electron capture probability. The impact-parameter trajectory analysis is applied to the motion of the projectile ion in order to visualize the electron capture radius and capture probability as functions of the impact parameter, thermal de Broglie wavelength and Debye length. The results show that the quantum and plasma screening effects significantly reduce the electron capture probability and the capture radius. It is found that the electron capture position is shifted to the core of the projectile ion with increasing the thermal de Broglie wavelength. It is also found that the quantum effects on the electron capture probability are more significant than the collective screening effects on the electron capture probability. The electron capture probability is found to be significantly increased with an increase of the charge.Received: 27 June 2003PACS: 52.20.-j Elementary processes in plasmasYoung-Dae Jung: Permanent address: Department of Physics, Hanyang University, Ansan, Kyunggi-Do 425-791, South Korea, yjung@bohr.hanyang.ac.kr     

Particle energization in an expanding magnetized relativistic plasma

Using a 21 / 2-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code to simulate the relativistic expansion of a magnetized collisionless plasma into a vacuum, we report a new mechanism in which the magnetic energy is efficiently converted into the directed kinetic energy of a small fraction of surface particles. We study this mechanism for both electron-positron and electron-ion (m(i)/m(e)=100, m(e) is the electron rest mass) plasmas. For the electron-positron case, the pairs can be accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies. For electron-ion plasmas, most of the energy gain goes to the ions.     

Plasma screening within Rydberg atoms in circular states

A Rydberg atom embedded in a plasma can experience penetration by slowly moving electrons within its volume. The original pure Coulomb potential must now be replaced by a screened Coulomb potential which contains either a screening length R_s or a screening factor A = R_s ^-1 . For any given discrete energy level, there is a Critical Screening Factor (CSF) A_c beyond which the energy level disappears (by merging into the continuum). Analytical results are obtained for the classical dependence of the energy on the screening factor, for the CSF, and for the critical radius of the electron orbit for Circular Rydberg States (CRS) in this screened Rydberg atom. The results are derived for any general form of the screened Coulomb potential and are applied to the particular case of the Debye potential. We also show that CRS can temporarily exist above the ionization threshold and are therefore the classical counterparts of quantal discrete states embedded into continuum. The results are significant not only to Rydberg plasmas, but also to fusion plasmas, where Rydberg states of multi-charged hydrogen-like ions result from charge exchange with hydrogen or deuterium atoms, as well as to dusty/complex plasmas.     

Screening and wake potentials of a test charge in quantum plasmas

The screening and wake potentials around a test charge in an electron-ion quantum plasma are studied, by using the linear dielectric response formalism. The short range screening potential in quantum plasmas is found to be significantly different from the Debye-Hückel shielding potential, while the wake potential has a long-range oscillatory behavior. Both short and long range potentials may lead to the trapping of other charges of the same polarity.     

Laser cooling of recombining electron-ion plasma

A method of producing and confining ultracold electron-ion plasma with a strongly nonideal ion subsystem is considered. The method is based on the laser cooling of plasma ions by the radiation resonant with the ion quantum transition. A model is developed for the laser cooling of recombining plasma. Computer simulation based on this model showed that the ion nonideality parameter can be as large as ～100. The data obtained demonstrate that the production of ultracold nonideal plasma is quite possible.     

On the Conductance Theory of Plasmas

In the framework of the linear response theory a quantumstatistical expression for the conductivity of nonideal plasmas is derived. In a simple approximation the influence of electron-ion scattering and that of masses of equal magnitude on the conductivity is discussed; the latter is expressed in terms of transport collision frequencies.     

Dynamics of spin-1/2 quantum plasmas

The fully nonlinear governing equations for spin-1/2 quantum plasmas are presented. Starting from the Pauli equation, the relevant plasma equations are derived, and it is shown that nontrivial quantum spin couplings arise, enabling studies of the combined collective and spin dynamics. The linear response of the quantum plasma in an electron-ion system is obtained and analyzed. Applications of the theory to solid state and astrophysical systems as well as dusty plasmas are pointed out.