| 1. |
- Dieckmann, Mark E, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Electron acceleration by a relativistic two stream instability with oblique B
- 2006
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In: 33rd European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics,2006. - Rome : European Physical Society. ; , s. P4.071-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electrons that are trapped by a quasi-electrostatic wave move, on average, with the phase speed of the wave. In the presence of a magnetic field B, the trapped electrons could, in principle, be accelerated to cosmic ray energies through cross-field transport. We model this cross-field transport with a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation for an oblique B. The electron energies at the simulation's end exceed 5 MeV for all pitch angles and they can reach GeV energies along the wavevector. We discuss environments, in which such conditions may exist and for which such an acceleration would be relevant.
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| 2. |
- Dieckmann, Mark E, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Electron surfing acceleration in oblique magnetic fields
- 2006
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 367:3, s. 865-872
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Initially, inhomogeneous plasma jets, ejected by active galactic nuclei and associated with gamma-ray bursts, are thermalized by the formation of internal shocks. Jet subpopulations can hereby collide at Lorentz factors of a few. As the resulting relativistic shock expands into the upstream plasma, a significant fraction of the upstream ions is reflected. These ions, together with downstream ions that leak through the shock, form relativistic beams of ions that outrun the shock. The thermalization of these beams via the two-stream instability is thought to contribute significantly to plasma heating and particle acceleration by the shock. Here, the capability of a two-stream instability to generate relativistic field-aligned and cross-field electron flow, is examined for a magnetized plasma by means of a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The electrons interact with the developing quasi-electrostatic waves and oblique magnetic fields. The simulation results bring forward evidence that such waves, by their non-linear interactions with the plasma, produce a highly relativistic field-aligned electron flow and electron energies, which could contribute to the radio synchrotron emissions from astrophysical jets, to ultrarelativistic leptonic subpopulations propagating with the jet and to the halo particles surrounding the accretion disc of the black hole.
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| 3. |
- Dieckmann, Mark E, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Phase speed of electrostatic waves : the critical parameter for efficient electron surfing acceleration
- 2006
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In: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 48:4, s. 489-508
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Particle acceleration by means of nonlinear plasma wave interactions is of great topical interest. Accordingly, in this paper we focus on the electron surfing process. Self-consistent kinetic simulations, using both relativistic Vlasov and particle-in-cell (PIC) approaches, show here that electrons can be accelerated to highly relativistic energies (up to 100mec2) if the phase speed of the electrostatic wave is mildly relativistic (0.6c to 0.9c for the magnetic field strengths considered). The acceleration is strong because of relativistic stabilization of the nonlinearly saturated electrostatic wave, seen in both relativistic Vlasov and PIC simulations. An inverse power law momentum distribution can arise for the most strongly accelerated electrons. These results are of relevance to observed rapid changes in the radio synchrotron emission intensities from microquasars, gamma ray bursts and other astrophysical objects that require rapid acceleration mechanisms for electrons.
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| 4. |
- Marklund, Mattias, et al.
(author)
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Electrostatic pair creation and recombination in quantum plasmas
- 2006
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In: JETP Letters. - 0021-3640 .- 1090-6487. ; 83:8, s. 313-317
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The production of electron-positron pairs by electrostatic waves in quantum plasmas is investigated. In particular, a semiclassical governing set of equations for a self-consistent treatment of pair creation by the Schwinger mechanism in a quantum plasma is derived.
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| 5. |
- Parviainen, Madelene Jeanette, et al.
(author)
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Phase Space Modulations in Magnetised Plasmas by a Mildly Relativistic Two-Stream Instability
- 2007
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In: Applied Parallel Computing. State of the Art in Scientific Computing. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. - 9783540757542 - 9783540757559 ; , s. 361-370
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A kinetic particle-in-cell simulation and 3D point-rendering visualisation are used to investigate a two-stream plasma instability, possibly found in the accretion disc of black holes. A plasma in an oblique external magnetic field is considered. The instability gives rise to a quasi-electrostatic wave able to trap electrons and accelerate them by cross-field transport. The results of the simulation show an acceleration of the electrons to speeds similar to the bulk speed of microquasar jets.
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| 6. |
- Shukla, Padma K, et al.
(author)
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Instability and dynamics of two nonlinearly coupled laser beams in a plasma
- 2006
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In: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1070-664X .- 1089-7674. ; 13:5, s. 053104-1-053104-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nonlinear interaction between two laser beams in a plasma is investigated in the weakly nonlinear and relativistic regime. The evolution of the laser beams is governed by two nonlinear Schrödinger equations that are coupled with the slow plasma density response. A nonlinear dispersion relation is derived and used to study the growth rates of the Raman forward and backward scattering instabilities as well of the Brillouin and self-focusing/modulational instabilities. The nonlinear evolution of the instabilities is investigated by means of direct simulations of the time-dependent system of nonlinear equations.
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