256 research outputs found
Instabilities for a relativistic electron beam interacting with a laser irradiated plasma
The effects of a radiation field (RF) on the unstable modes developed in
relativistic electron beam--plasma interaction are investigated assuming that
, where is the frequency of the RF and
is the plasma frequency. These unstable modes are parametrically
coupled to each other due to the RF and are a mix between two--stream and
parametric instabilities. The dispersion equations are derived by the
linearization of the kinetic equations for a beam--plasma system as well as the
Maxwell equations. In order to highlight the effect of the radiation field we
present a comparison of our analytical and numerical results obtained for
nonzero RF with those for vanishing RF. Assuming that the drift velocity
of the beam is parallel to the wave vector of the
excitations two particular transversal and parallel configurations of the
polarization vector of the RF with respect to are
considered in detail. It is shown that in both geometries resonant and
nonresonant couplings between different modes are possible. The largest growth
rates are expected at the transversal configuration when is
perpendicular to . In this case it is demonstrated that in general
the spectrum of the unstable modes in -- plane is split into two
distinct domains with long and short wavelengths, where the unstable modes are
mainly sensitive to the beam or the RF parameters, respectively. In parallel
configuration, , and at short wavelengths
the growth rates of the unstable modes are sensitive to both beam and RF
parameters remaining insensitive to the RF at long wavelengths.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure
Radiative Efficiency of Collisionless Accretion
Radiative efficiency of a slowly accreting black hole is estimated using a
two-temperature model of accretion. The radiative efficiency depends on the
magnetic field strength near the Schwarzschild radius. For weak magnetic fields
(magnetic energy=equipartition/1000), the low efficiency 0.0001 assumed in some
theoretical models might be achieved. For stronger fields, a significant
fraction of viscous heat is dissipated by electrons and radiated away resulting
in a larger efficiency. At equipartition magnetic fields, we estimate
efficiency = of order 10%.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, Submitted to Ap
2D continuous spectrum of shear Alfven waves in the presence of a magnetic island
The radial structure of the continuous spectrum of shear Alfven modes is
calculated in the presence of a magnetic island in tokamak plasmas. Modes with
the same helicity of the magnetic island are considered in a slab model
approximation. In this framework, with an appropriate rotation of the
coordinates the problem reduces to 2 dimensions. Geometrical effects due to the
shape of the flux surface's cross section are retained to all orders. On the
other hand, we keep only curvature effects responsible of the beta induced gap
in the low-frequency part of the continuous spectrum. New continuum
accumulation points are found at the O-point of the magnetic island. The
beta-induced Alfven Eigenmodes (BAE) continuum accumulation point is found to
be positioned at the separatrix flux surface. The most remarkable result is the
nonlinear modification of the BAE continuum accumulation point frequency
Statistical properties of giant pulses from the Crab pulsar
We have studied the statistics of giant pulses from the Crab pulsar for the
first time with particular reference to their widths. We have analyzed data
collected during 3.5 hours of observations conducted with the Westerbork
Synthesis Radio Telescope operated in a tied-array mode at a frequency of 1200
MHz. The PuMa pulsar backend provided voltage recording of X and Y linear
polarization states in two conjugate 10 MHz bands. We restricted the time
resolution to 4 microseconds to match the scattering on the interstellar
inhomogeneities. In total about 18000 giant pulses (GP) were detected in full
intensity with a threshold level of 6 sigma. Cumulative probability
distributions (CPD) of giant pulse energies were analyzed for groups of GPs
with different effective widths in the range 4 to 65 microseconds. The CPDs
were found to manifest notable differences for the different GP width groups.
The slope of a power-law fit to the high-energy portion of the CPDs evolves
from -1.7 to -3.2 when going from the shortest to the longest GPs. There are
breaks in the CPD power-law fits indicating flattening at low energies with
indices varying from -1.0 to -1.9 for the short and long GPs respectively. The
GPs with a stronger peak flux density were found to be of shorter duration. We
compare our results with previously published data and discuss the importance
of these peculiarities in the statistical properties of GPs for the heoretical
understanding of the emission mechanism responsible for GP generation.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
On the Possibility of Development of the Explosion Instability in a Two-Component Gravitating System
We obtain an expression for the energy of the density wave propagating in a
multicomponent gravitating medium in the form well known from electrodynamics.
Using the above, the possibility of "triple production" of the quasi-particles,
or waves, with their energies summing up to zero, in a non-equilibrium medium
is demonstrated. That kind of resonance wave interaction is shown to result in
the development of an explosion instability. By the method developed in plasma
physics, the characteristic time of the instability is evaluated.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication (JETP
Negative differential resistivity in superconductors with periodic arrays of pinning sites
We study theoretically the effects of heating on the magnetic flux moving in
superconductors with a periodic array of pinning sites (PAPS). The
voltage-current characteristic (VI-curve) of superconductors with a PAPS
includes a region with negative differential resistivity (NDR) of S-type (i.e.,
S-shaped VI-curve), while the heating of the superconductor by moving flux
lines produces NDR of N-type (i.e., with an N-shaped VI-curve). We analyze the
instability of the uniform flux flow corresponding to different parts of the
VI-curve with NDR. Especially, we focus on the appearance of the filamentary
instability that corresponds to an S-type NDR, which is extremely unusual for
superconductors. We argue that the simultaneous existence of NDR of both N- and
S-type gives rise to the appearance of self-organized two-dimensional dynamical
structures in the flux flow mode. We study the effect of the pinning site
positional disorder on the NDR and show that moderate disorder does not change
the predicted results, while strong disorder completely suppresses the S-type
NDR.Comment: 10 pages, 1 table, 7 figure
Plasma instability and amplification of electromagnetic waves in low-dimensional electron systems
A general electrodynamic theory of a grating coupled two dimensional electron
system (2DES) is developed. The 2DES is treated quantum mechanically, the
grating is considered as a periodic system of thin metal strips or as an array
of quantum wires, and the interaction of collective (plasma) excitations in the
system with electromagnetic field is treated within the classical
electrodynamics. It is assumed that a dc current flows in the 2DES. We consider
a propagation of an electromagnetic wave through the structure, and obtain
analytic dependencies of the transmission, reflection, absorption and emission
coefficients on the frequency of light, drift velocity of 2D electrons, and
other physical and geometrical parameters of the system. If the drift velocity
of 2D electrons exceeds a threshold value, a current-driven plasma instability
is developed in the system, and an incident far infrared radiation is
amplified. We show that in the structure with a quantum wire grating the
threshold velocity of the amplification can be essentially reduced, as compared
to the commonly employed metal grating, down to experimentally achievable
values. Physically this is due to a considerable enhancement of the grating
coupler efficiency because of the resonant interaction of plasma modes in the
2DES and in the grating. We show that tunable far infrared emitters, amplifiers
and generators can thus be created at realistic parameters of modern
semiconductor heterostructures.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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