Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities at Comet P/Halley: Giotto observations

Summary We examine the plasma parameters observed by the ion mass spectrometer of the Giotto JPA experiment, downstream the bow shock and up to the closest approach of comet P/Halley. From the analysis of the observations we have identified two regions where the ΔV between the proton and water group ion bulk velocities is first parallel and later perpendicular, respectively, to the magnetic-field direction. In the parallel region, a strong MHD turbulence is observed that we suppose to be generated by a firehose instability mechanism driven by the velocity difference. At about 5·10⁵ km from closest approach, the center of mass switches from solar-wind protons to the cometary ions, while the velocity difference becomes perpendicular to the magnetic field, causing the quenching of the isstability and the disappearing of the plasma fluctuations. Paper presented at the V Cosmic Physics National Conference, S. Miniato, November 27–30, 1990.     

Effect of upward ion on field-aligned currents in the near-earth magnetotail

A 3-dimensional resistive MHD simulation was carried out to study the effect of the upward ions on the field-aligned currents (FACs) in the near-earth magnetotail. The simulation results show that the up-flow ions originating from the nightside auroral oval would drift into the center plasma sheet along the magnetic field lines in the plasma sheet boundary, and have an important effect on the field-aligned currents. The main conclusions include that: 1) the upward-ions mainly affect the field-aligned currents in the near-earth magnetotail (inside 15 Re); 2) the generated FACs in the near-earth region have two types, i.e., Region 1 FAC in the high-latitude and Region 2 FAC in the low-latitude; 3) FACs increase with the enhancement of the upward ion flux; 4) with the same flux of the upward ions, FACs enhance with the increase of the velocity of the up-flow ions; 5) the intensification of FACs is also closely related with the latitude of the upward ions, and the ions from the closed field line region generate larger FACs; 6) the generation of FACs is closely related with B _y created by the upward ions. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. CNSF-40474058 and CNSF-40536030)     

Electron surfing acceleration in a current sheet of flares

A model of electron acceleration in a current sheet of flares is studied by the analytical approximation solution and the test particle simulation. The electron can be trapped in a potential of propagating electrostatic wave. The trapped electron moving with the phase velocity v _p of wave may be effectively accelerated by ev _p/c × B _z force along the outflow direction in the current sheet, if a criterion condition K > 0 for electron surfing acceleration is satisfied. The electron will be accelerated continuously until the electron de-trap from the wave potential at the turning point S.     

Acceleration of magnetic dipoles by a sequence of current-carrying turns

Magnetic dipoles are accelerated by a running gradient of the magnetic field that is produced by sequentially energizing current-carrying turns. Magnetic dipoles d _sh = 60 mm in diameter and l _tot = 1 m in length are gasdynamically preaccelerated to velocity V _in = 1 km/s, with which they are injected into the main accelerator. The turnover of the dipoles in the field of an accelerating pulse is prevented and focusing of dipoles is provided by directing the dipoles into a titanium tube. The weight of the dipoles is m = 2 kg, and they acquire final velocity V _fin = 5 km/s over acceleration length L _acc = 300 m.     

Forward light reflection from a moving inhomogeneity

The reflection of monochromatic and quasi-monochromatic pulsed light incident on a moving inhomogeneity in the optical characteristics of a medium having plasma-type dispersion has been analyzed. The velocity V of the inhomogeneity, induced in the medium by an intense laser pulse, has been changed by varying its carrier frequency. It has been shown that the usual back-reflection mode, when the reflected radiation pulse moves in the direction opposite the direction of incident radiation, is implemented only if the velocity V is less than the critical value V _min, which depends on the carrier frequency of the incident radiation pulse. It has been found that reflected radiation moves in the same direction as the incident radiation in a certain range of the velocity V _min < V < V _max (forward reflection). In this case, the reflected radiation pulse begins to lag behind a fast-moving inhomogeneity. When V _max < V < c, where c is the speed of light in vacuum, the group velocity of the incident radiation pulse is less than the speed of inhomogeneity, and there is no reflection. Analytical treatment is supported by numerical simulation.     

Anfachung und Dämpfung von Ionisationswellen in MHD-Kanälen und ihr Einfluß auf die effektive elektrische Leitfähigkeit,den effektiven Hall-Parameter und die mittlere Elektronentemperatur

The phase velocity, the amplification rate and the critical Hall parameter are theoretically determined for ionization waves in a weakly ionized plasma streaming across a strong external magnetic field and bearing a current flowing perpendicular to both the magnetic field and the stream velocity. The investigations hold for seeded rare gases at any degree of seed ionization. The critical Hall parameter β_c depends on the degree of ionization, the ionization energy and the temperatures of electron gas T₀ and neutral gas T_g · β_c is always greater than one, if 0 < T₀ — T_g ? T₀ holds. The three-dimensional treatment indicates the existence of waves with a nonvanishing wave vector component in the direction of the magnetic field. The influence of ionization waves on mean current density, mean Hall field intensity and mean electron temperature is determined up to second order terms in the relative fluctuations of the electron temperature. The amplification of ionization waves reduces the effective electric conductivity, the effective Hall parameter and the mean electron temperature compared to the undisturbed state. Similar results are also obtained for steady state homogeneous isotropic turbulence and a special case of axially symmetric turbulence. Furthermore, a component of the electric field in direction or in opposite direction to the magnetic field vector may be generated by non isotropic and non homogeneous turbulence.     

Stochastic acceleration in turbulent electric fields generated by 3D reconnection

Electron and proton acceleration in three-dimensional electric and magnetic fields is studied through test particle simulations. The fields are obtained by a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation of magnetic reconnection in slab geometry. The nonlinear evolution of the system is characterized by the growth of many unstable modes and the initial current sheet is fragmented with formation of small scale structures. We inject at random points inside the evolving current sheet a Maxwellian distribution of particles. In a relatively short time (less than a millisecond) the particles develop a power-law tail. The acceleration is extremely efficient and the electrons absorb a large percentage of the available energy in a small fraction of the characteristic time of the MHD simulation, suggesting that resistive MHD codes are unable to represent the full extent of particle acceleration.     

Enhancement of measurement accuracy of X‐ray PIV in comparison with the micro‐PIV technique

The X‐ray PIV (particle image velocimetry) technique has been used as a non‐invasive measurement modality to investigate the haemodynamic features of blood flow. However, the extraction of two‐dimensional velocity field data from the three‐dimensional volumetric information contained in X‐ray images is technically unclear. In this study, a new two‐dimensional velocity field extraction technique is proposed to overcome technological limitations. To resolve the problem of finding a correction coefficient, the velocity field information obtained by X‐ray PIV and micro‐PIV techniques for disturbed flow in a concentric stenosis with 50% severity was quantitatively compared. Micro‐PIV experiments were conducted for single‐plane and summation images, which provide similar positional information of particles as X‐ray images. The correction coefficient was obtained by establishing the relationship between velocity data obtained from summation images (V_S) and centre‐plane images (V_C). The velocity differences between V_S and V_C along the vertical and horizontal directions were quantitatively analysed as a function of the geometric angle of the test model for applying the present two‐dimensional velocity field extraction technique to a conduit of arbitrary geometry. Finally, the two‐dimensional velocity field information at arbitrary positions could be successfully extracted from X‐ray images by using the correction coefficient and several velocity parameters derived from V_S.     

Influence of the gas density on the motion of a free plasma piston in the railgun channel

The influence of the gas density on the acceleration of a plasma armature inside the railgun channel filled with various gases (xenon, air, or helium) under atmospheric pressure is investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that, after the discharge current has reached a steady value, the velocity of the glowing plasma front ceases to grow and remains constant as long as so does the current. The length over which the velocity saturates is equal to a few centimeters, i.e., is much shorter than the railgun channel length. The maximum velocity of the plasma piston meets a predicted limit, which is determined by the drag of the medium and a decrease in the acceleration of the plasma armature when a fraction of the material evaporated from the rails is involved into motion. The plasma composition depends on the electrode material. The velocities measured when the channel is filled with helium (V = 17.5 km/s) or air (V = 9.8 km/s) noticeably exceed the sound speed inside the plasma piston (5–7 km/s).     

Scaling of the energy of ion beams in the low-altitude plasma sheet boundary layer

The scaling of the energy of ion beams (beamlets) in resonance regions of the low-altitude plasma sheet boundary layer has been analyzed using the measurements made on the Interball-2 and Cluster satellites at distances of 3.0 to 6.0 Earth’s radii and numerical simulations of the acceleration of ions in the current sheet of the Earth’s magnetotail. The experimental test of the previously theoretically predicted scaling W _N ∼ N ^A (where W _N is the energy at the Nth resonance and A ∼ 1.33) shows that the real scaling of resonance energies varies in a wide range A ∈ [0.61, 1.75] and is independent of the geomagnetic indices K _p and AE. Model calculations with allowance for an electric field E _z perpendicular to the current sheet are in good agreement with the experimental data. They indicate that the scaling increases in the case of the dominance of the ion current and decreases in the case of the dominance of the electron current (A > 1.33 and A < 1.33, respectively).     

Dynamos at extreme magnetic Prandtl numbers: insights from shell models

We present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shell model suitable for computation of various energy fluxes of MHD turbulence for very small and very large magnetic Prandtl numbers Pm; such computations are inaccessible to direct numerical simulations. For small Pm, we observe that both kinetic and magnetic energy spectra scale as k^?5/3 in the inertial range, but the dissipative magnetic energy scales as k^?11/3exp?(? k/k_η). Here the kinetic energy at large length scale feeds the large-scale magnetic field that cascades to small-scale magnetic field, which gets dissipated by Joule heating. The large-Pm dynamo has a similar behaviour except that the dissipative kinetic energy scales as k^?13/3. For this case, the large-scale velocity field transfers energy to the large-scale magnetic field, which gets transferred to small-scale velocity and magnetic fields; the energy of the small-scale magnetic field also gets transferred to the small-scale velocity field, and the energy thus accumulated is dissipated by the viscous force.     

Swift heavy ions-induced degradation on the electrical characteristics of silicon NPN power transistors

ABSTRACT

The pre- and post-irradiation effects on the DC electrical characteristics of 100?MeV Phosphorous (P⁷⁺) and 80?MeV Nitrogen (N⁶⁺) ion-irradiated NPN transistors were studied in the dose range from 600?krad (Si) to 100?Mrad (Si). The different electrical characteristics, such as Gummel characteristics, excess base current (ΔI_B?=?I_B-Post?–?I_B-Pre), current gain (h_FE), damage constant (K) and output characteristics, were measured in situ after ion irradiation. The considerable increase in the base current (I_B) at lower V_BE and slight decrease in the collector current (I_C) at higher V_BE were observed after ion irradiation. The C–V measurements revealed that the doping concentration (N_d) was found decreased, while the built-in potential (V_bi) increased after irradiation. The ion-irradiated results are compared with ⁶⁰Co gamma-irradiated results in the same dose range. The SRIM simulation was performed to understand the range of ions and energy loss in the transistor structure. The SRIM simulation showed that 100?MeV P⁷⁺ and 80?MeV N⁶⁺ ions can easily pass through the active region of transistors by creating ionization and displacement damages in the device structure. The irradiation results showed that ions induce more degradation in the electrical characteristics when compared to ⁶⁰Co gamma radiation at the same dose range.     

Quantitative analysis of charge-carrier trapping in organic thin-film transistors from transfer characteristics

A dynamic method for quantifying the amount and mechanism of trapping in organic field effect transistors (OFETs) is proposed. It exploits transfer characteristics acquired upon application of a triangular waveform gate sweep V _G. The analysis of the transfer characteristics at the turning point V _G=−V _max between forward and backward gate sweeps, viz. around the maximum gate voltage V _max applied, provides a differential slope Δm which depends exclusively on trapping. Upon a systematic change of V _max it is possible to extract the initial threshold voltage, equivalent to one of the observables of conventional stress measurements, and assess the mechanism of trapping via the functional dependence on the current. The analysis of the differential logarithmic derivative at the turning point yields the parameters of trapping, as the exponent β and the time scale of trapping τ. In the case of an ultra-thin pentacene OFET we extract β=1 and τ=10²–10³ s, in agreement with an exponential distribution of traps. The analysis of the hysteresis parameter Δm is completely general and explores time scales much shorter than those involved in bias stress measurements, thus avoiding irreversible damage to the device.     

Calculation of the minimum breakdown voltage of inert gases in static fields

Using the analytical expression for the maximum ionization coefficient of the inert gases η_max = 0.325 1/V_i (V_i is the ionization potential of the atom) a more precise expression is obtained for the minimum breakdown voltage of inert gases as a function of the γ-processes at the cathode: $$\left( {Us} \right)_{\min } = 3.08 V_i ln\left( {\frac{1}{\gamma } + 1} \right)$$ .     

Cross-Field Diffusion by Charge Changing Processes

The particle transport induced by ionization, recombination and charge exchange processes in magnetically confined plasmas is analyzed. For ions with charge numbers Z ≧ 2 a random walk is caused by the fluttering of the gyro-radius as a result of successive recombination and ionization events. The corresponding diffusion coefficient, however, is very small and may be neglected even in the case of high-energy alpha particles being produced in fusion plasmas. Single and neutral particles are subjected to joint transport across the magnetic field due to their unimpeded motion during the short atomic phases. It is found that this mechanism is more important than classical transport over a wide temperature and density range. The corresponding diffusion coefficient D₁ = f(Te)Ti/mine is independent of the magnetic field strength and shows an electron temperature dependence which can be expressed in terms of the rate coefficients for ionization, recombination and charge exchange. The latter effect leads to a strong reduction of the diffusion process in hydrogen plasmas. Diffusion coefficients comparable with anomalous values of about 1m²/s are therefore reached only for cool (divertor) plasmas with T < 5eV.     

感应式脉冲推力器中等离子体加速数值研究

为了分析感应式脉冲放电等离子体推力器中时变电磁场作用下等离子体的放电参数分布及其随着磁场强度变化的影响,引入了利用双曲型散度清除方法的二维轴对称瞬态等离子体流动的磁流体力学数值模型.计算结果表明,随着输入能量的增加,等离子体团出现速度峰值的时刻提前,等离子体中同时存在的异号电流环对其加速具有阻滞作用.等离子体的加速效率随着磁场强度非线性增大,磁场大于某一临界值时(几何构型下峰值磁场强度大于0.45 T),有限空间情况下等离子体的加速效率获得显著提高.     

Simulation of the required operation modes and analysis of their stability for multipurpose isochronous cyclotrons

A mathematical and computer simulation of the operation modes of multipurpose isochronous cyclotrons is based on a calculation of current values in trim coils correcting the main magnetic field (I _i , i = 1, 2, ..., n) for a certain current level in the main coil (I _mc). This calculation is performed for the given kinetic energy (E _k ) at a certain radius or for the particle orbital frequency (F ₀). The results of this calculation provide a formation with the necessary precision of the required magnetic field in the range from the ion source to the particle extraction system. A number of numerical and physical experiments on calculating the main operation mode of the multipurpose isochronous cyclotron AIC-144 (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow) (p, E _k = 60 MeV, F ₀ = 26.25 MHz) proved the necessity of taking into account the estimate of the stability of the sought solution and the possibility of obtaining accelerated ion beams in the whole range of acceleration radii for small phase losses in the isochronization range of the required magnetic field.     

Analysis of the formation of ion beams in varying electric fields of a stationary plasma thruster

We propose a technique for analyzing the distribution function of the velocity components (radial V _r and azimuthal V _φ) of ions in a beam. This technique is used for studying the ion beam emerging from a stationary plasma thruster (SPT). It is shown that the beam contains ions with a radial velocity component in the range V _r /V _z = ? 1.2 to +0.74, as well as ions with the azimuthal velocity component in the range V _?/V _z = ±0.9. Numerical calculations lead to the conclusion that ions acquire the azimuthal velocity component in the field of the azimuthal wave of the plasma potential evolving in the SPT channel.     

Stationary collisionless shock waves in an initial plasma with high ion temperature

Stationary collisonless shock waves propagating perpendicularly to an initial magnetic field are produced by the fast-rising magnetic field \((\dot B = 7 \cdot 10^{10} G/sec)\) of a theta pinch (coil diameter 16 cm, coil length 60 cm). The initial plasma is produced by a fast theta pinch discharge (810 kHz). At filling pressures between 5 and 15 mtorr H₂ or D₂ the degree of ionization is about 50%. By choosing the filling pressure properly it is possible to trap a homogeneous magnetic field. The ions of this plasma have a temperature of a few 10 eV. This value is much higher than the electron temperature and results in a local plasmaβ between 0.3 and 5. In this initial plasma stationary collisionless shock waves with Mach numbers between 1.5 and 5 are observed. The snow-plough model is used to derive conditions for the stationary state, attainable Mach number, and velocity of the front which relate the external magnetic field and the parameters of the initial plasma. Strong collisionless dissipation can be demonstrated by measuring the profiles of magnetic field, density, and electron temperature of the shock waves. For the electrons this dissipation mechanism can be described by an effective collison frequency. This phenomenologically introduced frequency determines the width of the shock front at least for subcritical shock waves. It exceeds the classical electron-ion collision frequency by 1–2 orders of magnitude and is roughly equal to one-third of the ion plasma frequency. The ion temperature can be estimated from the steady state conservation relations. The ions are heated in the two degrees of freedom perpendicular to the magnetic field. For shock waves with Mach numbers below the critical one the ions seem to be heated merely adiabatically. In strong shock waves this heating is considerably exceeded, and for high Mach numbers it yields ion temperatures up to about 500 eV. Finally, semi-empirical formulas are derived to estimate the possible temperatures of electrons and ions behind the shock front.     

Gas dynamics of a rocket plume in the upper atmosphere

We study the expansion of a rocket exhaust plume in the direction perpendicular to the rocket motion. We compare numerical calculations with a self-similar approximation for a strong cylindrically symmetric explosion and show that, if the rocket velocity V _∞ is high enough and exceeds the sum of the exhaust gas velocity V _e and the sound velocity V _s (V _∞ > V _e + V _s ), a gasdynamic hole may be formed for a short time around the rocket flight trajectory in the upper atmosphere, where the plume-gas concentration is less than the ambient-gas concentration at a given altitude. We calculate the density and temperature profiles of the transversal plume expansion.