| 1. |
- Ekeberg, Jonas, 1978-
(author)
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Solitary waves and enhanced incoherent scatter ion lines
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis addresses solitary waves and their significance for auroral particle acceleration, coronal heating and incoherent scatter radar spectra. Solitary waves are formed due to a balance of nonlinear and dispersive effects. There are several nonlinearities present in ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and dispersion can be introduced by including theHall termin the generalised Ohm’s law. The resulting system of equations comprise the classical ideal MHD waves, whistlers, drift waves and solitarywave solutions. The latter reside in distinct regions of the phase space spanned by the speed and the angle (to the magnetic field) of the propagating wave. Within each region, qualitatively similar solitary structures are found. In the limit of neglected electron intertia, the solitary wave solutions are confined to two regions of slow and fast waves, respectively. The slow (fast) structures are associated with density compressions (rarefactions) and positive (negative) electric potentials. Such negative potentials are shown to accelerate electrons in the auroral region (solar corona) to tens (hundreds) of keV. The positive electric potentials could accelerate solar wind ions to velocities of 300–800 km/s. The structure widths perpendicular to themagnetic field are in the Earth’s magnetosphere (solar corona) of the order of 1–100 km (m). This thesis also addresses a type of incoherent scatter radar spectra, where the ion line exhibits a spectrally uniform power enhancement with the up- and downshifted shoulder and the spectral region in between enhanced simultaneously and equally. The power enhancements are one order of magnitude above the thermal level and are often localised to an altitude range of less than 20 km at or close to the ionospheric F region peak. The observations are well-described by a model of ion-acoustic solitary waves propagating transversely across the radar beam. Two cases of localised ion line enhancements are shown to occur in conjunction with auroral arcs drifting through the radar beam. The arc passages are associated with large gradients in ion temperature, which are shown to generate sufficiently high velocity shears to give rise to growing Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instabilities. The observed ion line enhancements are interpreted in the light of the low-frequency turbulence associated with these instabilities.
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| 2. |
- Stenflo, Lennart, et al.
(author)
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Nonlinear beam generated plasma waves as a source for enhanced plasma and ion acoustic lines
- 2011
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In: Physics of Plasmas. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 1070-664X .- 1089-7674. ; 18:15, s. 052107-1-052107-14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Observations by, for instance, the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) demonstrate that the symmetry of the naturally occurring ion line in the polar ionosphere can be broken by an enhanced, nonthermal, level of fluctuations (naturally enhanced ion-acoustic lines, NEIALs). It was in many cases found that the entire ion spectrum can be distorted, also with the appearance of a third line, corresponding to a propagation velocity significantly slower than the ion acoustic sound speed. It has been argued that selective decay of beam excited primary Langmuir waves can explain some phenomena similar to those observed. We consider a related model, suggesting that a primary nonlinear process can be an oscillating two-stream instability, generating a forced low frequency mode that does not obey any ion sound dispersion relation. At later times, the decay of Langmuir waves can give rise also to enhanced asymmetric ion lines. The analysis is based on numerical results, where the initial Langmuir waves are excited by a cold dilute electron beam. By this numerical approach, we can detect fine details of the physical processes, in particular, demonstrate a strong space-time intermittency of the electron waves in agreement with observations. Our code solves the full Vlasov equation for electrons and ions, with the dynamics coupled through the electrostatic field derived from Poisson's equation. The analysis distinguishes the dynamics of the background and beam electrons. This distinction simplifies the analysis for the formulation of the weakly nonlinear analytical model for the oscillating two-stream instability. The results have general applications beyond their relevance for the ionospheric observations.
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| 3. |
- Olson, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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On the interpretation of Langmuir probe data inside a spacecraft sheath
- 2010
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In: Review of Scientific Instruments. - : AIP Publishing. - 0034-6748 .- 1089-7623. ; 81:10, s. 105106-1-105106-8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- If a Langmuir probe is located inside the sheath of a negatively charged spacecraft, there is a risk that the probe characteristic is modified compared to that of a free probe in the ambient plasma. We have studied this probe-in-spacecraft-sheath problem in the parameter range of a small Langmuir probe (with radius r(LP)<U-1, there is first a transition region II in applied potential, U-1
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| 4. |
- Forsberg, Mats, 1978-
(author)
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Gravitational perturbations in plasmas and cosmology
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Gravitational perturbations can be in the form of scalars, vectors or tensors. This thesis focuses on the evolution of scalar perturbations in cosmology, and interactions between tensor perturbations, in the form of gravitational waves, and plasma waves. The gravitational waves studied in this thesis are assumed to have small amplitudes and wavelengths much shorter than the background length scale, allowing for the assumption of a flat background metric. Interactions between gravitational waves and plasmas are described by the Einstein-Maxwell-Vlasov, or the Einstein-Maxwell-fluid equations, depending on the level of detail required. Using such models, linear wave excitation of various waves by gravitational waves in astrophysical plasmas are studied, with a focus on resonance effects. Furthermore, the influence of strong magnetic field quantum electrodynamics, leading to detuning of the gravitational wave-electromagnetic wave resonances, is considered. Various nonlinear phenomena, including parametric excitation and wave steepening are also studied in different astrophysical settings. In cosmology the evolution of gravitational perturbations are of interest in processes such as structure formation and generation of large scale magnetic fields. Here, the growth of density perturbations in Kantowski-Sachs cosmologies with positive cosmological constant is studied.
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| 5. |
- Hellesen, Carl, 1980-
(author)
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Diagnosing Fuel Ions in Fusion Plasmas using Neutron Emission Spectroscopy
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Neutron emission spectra, measured with the time of flight spectrometer TOFOR, at the joint European torus (JET) are presented in this thesis. TOFOR has been in use since 2005, routinely measuring the neutron emission from JET plasmas. The work in the thesis mainly concerns the modeling of the signatures in the neutron spectrum that reveal different parts of the fuel ion distribution, such as the thermal bulk plasma as well as energetic ions from neutral beam and ion cyclotron heating. Parametric models of the signatures, using plasma parameters as input, are employed to generate trial neutron spectra. The parameters, such as the fuel ion temperature or the fast ion distribution function, are deduced by iteratively fitting the trial spectra to the measured data. Measurements with TOFOR have been made and the models were applied. The studies are mainly on neutrons from d(d, n)3 He reactions(DD), although the emission from reactions with the plasma impurity 9 Be and triton burn up is covered as well. This has allowed for detailed studies of e.g. the physics ICRF heating as well as the interactions between energetic ions and plasma instabilities, such as toroidal Alfvé Eigenmodes.
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| 6. |
- Skyman, Andreas, 1982, et al.
(author)
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Gyrokinetic modelling of stationary electron and impurity profiles in tokamaks
- 2014
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In: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1089-7674 .- 1070-664X. ; 21:9, s. 092305-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Particle transport due to Ion Temperature Gradient (ITG)/Trapped Electron Mode (TEM) turbulence is investigated using the gyrokinetic code GENE. Both a reduced quasilinear treatment and nonlinear simulations are performed for typical tokamak parameters corresponding to ITG dominated turbulence. The gyrokinetic results are compared and contrasted with results from a computationally efficient fluid model. A selfconsistent treatment is used, where the stationary local profiles are calculated corresponding to zero particle flux simultaneously for electrons and trace impurities. The scaling of the stationary profiles with magnetic shear, safety factor, electron-to-ion temperature ratio, collisionality, toroidal sheared rotation, plasma β, triangularity, and elongation is investigated. In addition, the effect of different main ion mass on the zero flux condition is discussed. The electron density gradient can significantly affect the stationary impurity profile scaling. It is therefore expected that a selfconsistent treatment will yield results more comparable to experimental results for parameter scans where the stationary background density profile is sensitive. This is shown to be the case in scans over magnetic shear, collisionality, elongation, and temperature ratio, for which the simultaneous zero flux electron and impurity profiles are calculated. A slight asymmetry between hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium with respect to profile peaking is obtained, in particular, for scans in collisionality and temperature ratio.
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| 7. |
- Wilkie, George, 1983
(author)
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Analytic slowing-down distributions as modified by turbulent transport
- 2018
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In: Journal of Plasma Physics. - 0022-3778 .- 1469-7807. ; 84:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The effect of electrostatic microturbulence on fast particles rapidly decreases at high energy, but can be significant at moderate energy. Previous studies found that, in addition to changes in the energetic particle density, this results in non-trivial changes to the equilibrium velocity distribution. These effects have implications for plasma heating and the stability of Alfven eigenmodes, but make multiscale simulations much more difficult without further approximations. Here, several related analytic model distribution functions are derived from first principles. A single dimensionless parameter characterizes the relative strength of turbulence relative to collisions, and this parameter appears as an exponent in the model distribution functions. Even the most simple of these models reproduces key features of the numerical phase-space transport solution and provides a useful a priori heuristic for determining how strong the effect of turbulence is on the redistribution of energetic particles in toroidal plasmas.
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| 8. |
- Magnusson, Joel, 1991, et al.
(author)
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Multiple colliding laser pulses as a basis for studying high-field high-energy physics
- 2019
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In: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. - 2469-9926 .- 2469-9934. ; 100:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Apart from maximizing the strength of optical electromagnetic fields achievable at high-intensity laser facilities, the collision of several phase-matched laser pulses has been identified theoretically as a trigger of and way to study various phenomena. These range from the basic processes of strong-field quantum electrodynamics to the extraordinary dynamics of the generated electron-positron plasmas. This has paved the way for several experimental proposals aimed at both fundamental studies of matter at extreme conditions and the creation of particle and radiation sources. Because of the unprecedented capabilities of such sources, they have the potential to open up new opportunities for experimental studies in nuclear and quark-gluon physics. We perform here a systematic analysis of different regimes and opportunities achievable with the concept of multiple colliding laser pulses, for both current and upcoming laser facilities. We reveal that several distinct regimes could be within reach of multi-petawatt laser facilities.
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| 9. |
- Baird, C. D., et al.
(author)
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Realising single-shot measurements of quantum radiation reaction in high-intensity lasers
- 2019
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In: New Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 1367-2630. ; 21:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Modern laser technology is now sufficiently advanced that collisions between high-intensity laser pulses and laser-wakefield-accelerated (LWFA) electron beams can reach the strong-field regime, so that it is possible to measure the transition between the classical and quantum regimes of light-matter interactions. However, the energy spectrum of LWFA electron beams can fluctuate significantly from shot to shot, making it difficult to clearly discern quantum effects in radiation reaction (RR), for example. Here we show how this can be accomplished in only a single laser shot. A millimetre-scale pre-collision drift allows the electron beam to expand to a size larger than the laser focal spot and develop a correlation between transverse position and angular divergence. In contrast to previous studies, this means that a measurement of the beam's energy-divergence spectrum automatically distinguishes components of the beam that hit or miss the laser focal spot and therefore do and do not experience RR.
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| 10. |
- Litnovsky, A., et al.
(author)
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Dust investigations in TEXTOR : Impact of dust on plasma-wall interactions and on plasma performance
- 2013
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In: Journal of Nuclear Materials. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3115 .- 1873-4820. ; 438:Suppl., s. S126-S132
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dust will have severe impact on ITER performance since the accumulation of tritium in dust represents a safety issue, a possible reaction of dust with air and steam imposes an explosion hazard and the penetration of dust in core plasmas may degrade plasma performance by increasing radiative losses. Investigations were performed in TEXTOR where known amounts of pre-characterized carbon, diamond and tungsten dust were mobilized into plasmas using special dust holders. Mobilization of dust changed a balance between plasma-surface interactions processes, significantly increasing net deposition. Immediately after launch dust was dominating both core and edge plasma parameters. Remarkably, in about 100 ms after the launch, the effect of dust on edge and core plasma parameters was vanished: no increase of carbon and tungsten concentrations in the core plasmas was detected suggesting a prompt transport of dust to the nearby plasma-facing components without further residence in the plasma.
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