Direct evidence for thermal mechanism of plasma influence on shock wave propagation

Shock wave propagation through a glow discharge is studied by a double beam laser Schlieren method. A pulsed discharge is used to separate electron and other plasma related phenomena from thermal effects. The results prove the pure thermal nature of the influence of a plasma on a shock wave.     

Experiments on the propagation of plasma filaments

We investigate experimentally the motion and structure of isolated plasma filaments propagating through neutral gas. Plasma filaments, or "blobs," arise from turbulent fluctuations in a range of plasmas. Our experimental geometry is toroidally symmetric, and the blobs expand to a larger major radius under the influence of a vertical electric field. The electric field, which is caused by nabla B and curvature drifts in a 1/R magnetic field, is limited by collisional damping on the neutral gas. The blob's electrostatic potential structure and the resulting E x B flow field give rise to a vortex pair and a mushroom shape, which are consistent with nonlinear plasma simulations. We observe experimentally this characteristic mushroom shape for the first time. We also find that the blob propagation velocity is inversely proportional to the neutral density and decreases with time as the blob cools.     

Damping of longitudinal plasma oscillations

Attenuation of electron oscillations in a fully ionized plasma is investigated by solving linearized kinetic equation without external fields. The general dispersion relation for longitudinal plasma oscillations is obtained using the BGK model. Damping due to electron ion collisions is obtained with a correction term. It is also observed that damping rate decreases ask increases, which is in agreement with McBride.     

Perturbation approach to plasma oscillations

It is shown that the complete spectrum, continuous as well as discrete, and corresponding eigenfunctions of the Vlasov operator can be obtained by a single perturbation procedure from the purely continuous spectrum and corresponding eigenfunctions of the free-streaming operator. In addition we present an alternative definition of the eigenfunctions and show that the problem of normalizing the continuous eigenmodes is thus solved automatically.     

Effects of plasma boundary layer on the propagation of an electron plasma wave

The spatial phase of an electron plasma wave shifts towards a transmitter when a dc potential biased on the transmitter approaches the space potential of the plasma.     

Large amplitude electron plasma oscillations

We consider a cold plasma in order to find new large-amplitude wave solutions in the long-wavelength limit. Accordingly we derive two generic coupled equations which describe the energy exchange between the electrostatic and electromagnetic waves. A new kind of quasi-periodic behavior is found. Our derivations may be considered as a prerequisite to extended studies of stimulated Raman scattering for cases where the wave amplitudes are so large that standard perturbation techniques are not applicable.     

Microwave cooling of Josephson plasma oscillations

An extended Josephson junction can be described as a microwave cavity coupled to a Josephson oscillator. This is formally equivalent to a Fabry-Perot cavity with a freely vibrating mirror, where it has been shown that radiation pressure from photons in the cavity can reduce (increase) the vibrations of the mirror, effectively cooling (heating) it. We demonstrate that, similarly, the superconducting phase difference across a Josephson junction-the Josephson phase-can be "cooled" or "heated" by microwave excitation of the junction and that both these effects increase with microwave power.     

Nonlinear longitudinal oscillations of relativistic plasma

The investigation has been made of nonlinear forced longitudinal oscillations of a relativistic plasma. It was demonstrated that: a) the nonlinear terms (v▽)p arising in the equations of motion do not restrict the electron oscillation amplitude increase in the region of plasma resonance; b) the nonlinear terms due to the relativistic nature of oscillations, firstly, limit the oscillation amplitude in the resonance region and, secondly, lead to the development of a parametric instability. The harmonic, sub- and ultraharmonic oscillations turned out to be unstable. The conditions for the instability as well as expressions for the growth rates of unstable oscillations were obtained.     

Quantum effects on propagation of surface Langmuir oscillations in semi-bounded quantum plasmas

The quantum effects on the propagation of surface Langmuir oscillations are investigated in semi-bounded quantum plasmas. The specular reflection method is employed to obtain the dispersion relation of the surface Langmuir oscillations. The results show that the surface Langmuir oscillations can be propagated due to the quantum effects. It is also shown that the quantum effect enhances the propagation velocity. However, in high wave number domains, the group velocity of the propagation of surface Langmuir oscillations decreases with increasing the wave number. In addition, the electrostatic fast surface oscillating mode is found in the semi-bounded cold quantum plasmas.     

Dispersion relations of the surface plasma oscillations of multilayers

An equation for determining the dispersion relations of the surface plasma oscillations has been derived for the most general case of multilayers. The equation is given in a very simple form of the vanishing of the trace of a product of 2×2 matrices of recursive type.     

Ionic plasma oscillations in superionic conductors

Some superionic conductors behave as if their charge was carried by nearly free charged particles. If this is the case, these free particles should undergo plasma oscillations. The plasma oscillations may already have been observed in superionic AgI and CuI. Similar oscillations might also be observable in ionic liquids such as melted AgI.