Express interferometry of dense plasma

An express method of diagnostics of a wide class of plasma objects (including dense plasma) with high spectral and spatial resolution is suggested, which allows measurement of spectral line widths comparable with the free spectral interval of a Fabry—Perot interferometer. The proposed method is characterized by sufficient accuracy even with considerable broadening of spectral lines. Kiev T. Shevchenko University, Ukraine. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No.6, pp. 813–817, November–December, 1997.     

Parameters of the discharge plasmas of surface-plasma sources of negative hydrogen ions

The main parameters of the plasma of high-current hydrogen-cesium glow discharges of surface-plasma (planotron and Penning) sources of negative hydrogen ions are determined using contact-free spectroscopic methods and compared for identical discharge current densities. The elemental and charge composition of the plasma is established. The temperature of the hydrogen atoms and the energy of the visible-range radiation of the plasma discharge are measured and estimates of the electron density in the plasma are made. The dynamics of the change in the parameters of the discharge plasma of a Penning source — the densities of hydrogen atoms, cesium atoms and ions, and molybdenum atoms — is tracked during a discharge pulse with spatial resolution along two coordinates. It is observed that cesium atoms and ions and molybdenum atoms are pent up near the cathode surface. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 32–38 (October 1998)     

High-pressure microwave discharge in an above-breakdown field. Streamer branching

A new effect — the splitting of the tips (branching) of a microwave streamer arising from a pre-existing dense plasma cloud in an above-threshold electric field — is obtained numerically on the basis of a planar two-dimensional model. The causes of this phenomenon and the factors suppressing it are found. An expression is obtained for the value of the cloud radius above which branching occurs. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 1, 15–19 (10 January 1999)     

Existence regions of regimes with anomalously high rates of plasma generation in grid plasma switch elements

Results are presented from a systematic investigation of the conditions under which anomalously high rates of plasma generation are observed in the anode region of a low-voltage Knudsen arc in grid plasma switch elements. The phenomenon develops over a wide range of currents and switched voltages under conditions for which the plasma density in the cathode-grid region is noticeably higher than the density in the anode region. and its onset is characterized by a pronounced pressure threshold of ∼2×10⁻² Torr. The results are analyzed from the standpoint of the possible mechanisms for anomalous plasma generation — collisional nonresonance diffusion of electrons in velocity space, leading to enrichment of the distribution function in fast particles, and the collapse of Langmuir waves in the gap at the high energies of the beam produced when the wires of the grid are bridged by the quenching pulse and and the current is blocked. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 15–21 (June 1997)     

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)     

Glow-discharge-pumped broadband ultraviolet lamp

The optical characteristics of a UV broadband lamp that was excited by a longitudinal glow discharge and operated on Kr—Br₂—I₂, Xe—Br₂—I₂, and Kr—Xe—Br₂—I₂ mixtures are investigated. The interelectrode spacing in the lamp is 10 cm, the inner diameter of a discharge tube being 14 mm. The current-voltage characteristics, the emission spectra of the plasma, and the dependence of the intensity of spectral lines (the amplitude of radiation bands) on the power that was pumped into the plasma based on mixtures of various compositions and pressures, as well as the radiation power in the spectral range from 200 to 390 nm, are studied. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 72, No. 6, pp. 840–842, November–December, 2005.     

Critical experiments in the search for fermion condensation

The specific features of fermion condensation — a phase transition associated with the rearrangement of the one-particle degrees of freedom in strongly correlated Fermi systems — by which this phenomenon can be detected experimentally are discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 11, 828–833 (10 June 1997)     

Electronic spectrum of a two-dimensional Fibonacci lattice

The electronic spectrum and wave functions of a new quasicrystal structure—a two-dimensional Fibonacci lattice—are investigated in the tight-binding approximation using the method of the level statistics. This is a self-similar structure consisting of three elementary structural units. The “central” and “nodal” decoration of this structure are examined. It is shown that the electronic energy spectrum of a two-dimensional Fibonacci lattice contains a singular part, but in contrast to a one-dimensional Fibonacci lattice the spectrum does not contain a hierarchical gap structure. The measure of allowed states (Lebesgue measure) of the spectrum is different from zero, and for “central” decoration it is close to 1. The character of the localization of the wave functions is investigated, and it is found that the wave functions are “critical.” Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 116, 1834–1842 (November 1999)     

Chaotic Rabi vacuum oscillations in cavity quantum electrodynamics

It is shown in numerical simulations with two-level atoms moving through a single-mode high-Q cavity that spontaneous emission of a new type — chaotic Rabi vacuum oscillations — arises in the strong atom-field coupling regime. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 11, 801–806 (10 June 1997)     

Possibility of the appearance of spin autowaves in a model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation

A model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation is introduced for the Landau-Lifshitz equations. It is shown that in this model a ferromagnet can be regarded as an oscillating active medium where the formation of autowave structures — spin autowaves, pacemakers, and spiral waves — is possible. Their wave characteristics, expressed in terms of the parameters of the medium, are found for a special case. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 513–515 (March 1997)     

Application of symmetry operations for construction of quasiperiodic structures in a plane

A method is proposed for constructing a quasiperiodic structure of symmetry elements — regular pentagons and five-pointed stars — in a plane. The growth of the structure is determined by the action of the symmetry operations, whose effect is not completely identical to that of similar operations in classical crystallography. The tiling (“flower of pentagons”), consisting of a central pentagon and five side pentagons joined along the edges, is studied. The growth of this tiling is accompanied by the appearance of a “flower of stars” and by the formation of isolated pores in the form of rhombi. The relation between the obtained structure and Penrose tiling is examined, and it is noted that some vertices of the Penrose tiling coincide with all vertices of the polygons of the packing obtained. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 8, 635–640 (25 April 1997)     

Induction mechanism of cosmic ray production and kinks in the cosmic ray spectrum

Two kinks are observed in the energy spectrum of galactic cosmic rays. It is shown that the entire spectrum can be described, to a good approximation, by a single formula obtained on the basis of the hypothesis that the particles are produced and accelerated in plasma pinches by an induction mechanism under the assumption that three hierarchical groups of currents are present—interstellar, galactic, and metagalactic. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 4, 225–230 (25 August 1996)     

Amplification of the generation of the sum-frequency signal in multilayer periodic structures at the edges of the Bragg band gap

A new property of a one-dimensional periodic structure — amplification of the sum-frequency signal arising under the simultaneous action of two laser pulses on this structure with radiation frequencies corresponding to the edges of the fixed Bragg band gap — is experimentally observed and described. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 11, 718–721 (10 December 1999)     

A discrete nonetheless remarkable brick in de Sitter: The “massless minimally coupled field”

Over the last ten years interest in the physics of de Sitter space—time has been growing very fast. Besides the supposed existence of a “de Sitterian period” in inflation theories, the observational evidence of an acceleration of the universe expansion (interpreted as a positive cosmological constant or a “dark energy” or some form of “quintessence”) has triggered a lot of attention in the physics community. A specific de Sitterian field called “massless minimally coupled field” (mmc) plays a fundamental role in inflation models and in the construction of the de Sitterian gravitational field. A covariant quantization of the mmc field, à la Krein—Gupta—Bleuler was proposed in Class. Quantum. Grav. 17, 1415 (2000). In this talk, we will review this construction and explain the relevance of such a field in the construction of a massless spin-2 field in de Sitter space—time.     

Adiabatic Raman polariton in a Bose condensate

The Raman interaction of optical fields with a Bose condensate is studied in the adiabatic regime. A superposition of operators is found — one annihilating an atom in a metastable state and the other annihilating a photon in resonance with a transition from the ground state to an excited state — which is an adiabatic invariant of the problem (Raman polariton). Possible applications for Bose-condensate diagnostics and development of atomic lasers are proposed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 7, 473–477 (10 October 1996)     

Critical fields and currents in a weakly nonlinear medium near the percolation threshold

For fields above a critical value the expansion of the conductivity in powers of the field ceases to be valid and the weak-nonlinearity approximation no longer works. The density behavior of the critical fields in strongly inhomogeneous media near the percolation threshold is found on the basis of two criteria—an average criterion and a local criterion. The parameter values of the medium for which crossover—a change of the critical behavior—occurs are determined. Similar calculations are performed for the critical currents. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 5–8 (June 1998)     

A novel type of incommensurate phase in quartz: The elongated-triangle phase

We present evidence for a thermodynamically stable incommensurate elongated-triangle (ELT) phase in quartz, observed by transmission electron microscopy at the α-β structural transition. The phase sequence on cooling is: incommensurate equilateral-triangle (EQT) phase (ferroelectric)—incommensurate ELT (ferroelectric and ferroelastic)— uniform α phase. The ELT blocks could be responsible for the large light scattering in the vicinity of the α-gb transition. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 5, 376–381 (10 September 1996) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Formation of a chaotic layer of nonlinear resonance by a two-frequency perturbation

A new effect [V. V. Vecheslavov, Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 109, 2208 (1996) (JETP 82, 1190 (1996)]—the appearance of low-frequency secondary harmonics in the separatrix mapping of a system—is discussed in detail for the example of a pendulum with a two-frequency perturbation. It is shown that there exist regions of values of the perturbation parameters where these harmonics make the main contribution to the formation of the chaotic layer of the fundamental resonance. The results of analytical and numerical determinations of the amplitudes of the secondary harmonics are compared. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 12, 989–994 (25 June 1996)     

Antipolarization effect in quantum wells in a strong external alternating field

It is shown that when a strong ac electric field acts on an electron in a double quantum well, the dipole moment is an almost periodic function of the dc voltage applied to the structure. An antipolarization effect — the structure is polarized in a direction opposite to the external field — appears during one half of the period. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 6, 386–391 (25 September 1999)