155 research outputs found
Circular Polarization Induced by Scintillation in a Magnetized Medium
A new theory is presented for the development of circular polarization as
radio waves propagate through the turbulent, birefringent interstellar medium.
The fourth order moments of the wavefield are calculated and it is shown that
unpolarized incident radiation develops a nonzero variance in circular
polarization. A magnetized turbulent medium causes the Stokes parameters to
scintillate in a non-identical manner. A specific model for this effect is
developed for the case of density fluctuations in a uniform magnetic field.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, Phys. Rev. E, accepte
Field Theoretic Description of Ultrarelativistic Electron-Positron Plasmas
Ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas can be produced in high-intensity
laser fields and play a role in various astrophysical situations. Their
properties can be calculated using QED at finite temperature. Here we will use
perturbative QED at finite temperature for calculating various important
properties, such as the equation of state, dispersion relations of collective
plasma modes of photons and electrons, Debye screening, damping rates, mean
free paths, collision times, transport coefficients, and particle production
rates, of ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas. In particular, we will
focus on electron-positron plasmas produced with ultra-strong lasers.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, published versio
The Rarita-Schwinger Particles Under de Influence of Strong Magnetic Fields
In this work, we calculate the solutions of the Rarita-Schwinger equation
with the inclusion of the eletromagnetic interaction. Our gauge and coupling
prescription choices lead to Dirac-type solutions. One of the consequences of
our results are the Landau level occupation of particles, quite different from
the usual spin 1/2 particle system occupation numbers.Comment: 12 page
Universal Critical Behavior of Aperiodic Ferromagnetic Models
We investigate the effects of geometric fluctuations, associated with
aperiodic exchange interactions, on the critical behavior of -state
ferromagnetic Potts models on generalized diamond hierarchical lattices. For
layered exchange interactions according to some two-letter substitutional
sequences, and irrelevant geometric fluctuations, the exact recursion relations
in parameter space display a non-trivial diagonal fixed point that governs the
universal critical behavior. For relevant fluctuations, this fixed point
becomes fully unstable, and we show the apperance of a two-cycle which is
associated with a novel critical behavior. We use scaling arguments to
calculate the critical exponent of the specific heat, which turns out
to be different from the value for the uniform case. We check the scaling
predictions by a direct numerical analysis of the singularity of the
thermodynamic free-energy. The agreement between scaling and direct
calculations is excellent for stronger singularities (large values of ). The
critical exponents do not depend on the strengths of the exchange interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure (included), RevTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev. E as a
Rapid Communicatio
Observations of Low Frequency Solar Radio Bursts from the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory
The Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory (RSTO; www.rosseobservatory.ie) was
established at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland (53 05'38.9", 7 55'12.7") in
2010 to study solar radio bursts and the response of the Earth's ionosphere and
geomagnetic field. To date, three Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency
Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO)
spectrometers have been installed, with the capability of observing in the
frequency range 10-870 MHz. The receivers are fed simultaneously by biconical
and log-periodic antennas. Nominally, frequency spectra in the range 10-400 MHz
are obtained with 4 sweeps per second over 600 channels. Here, we describe the
RSTO solar radio spectrometer set-up, and present dynamic spectra of a sample
of Type II, III and IV radio bursts. In particular, we describe fine-scale
structure observed in Type II bursts, including band splitting and rapidly
varying herringbone features
Colloquium: Nonlinear collective interactions in quantum plasmas with degenerate electron fluids
The current understanding of some important nonlinear collective processes in
quantum plasmas with degenerate electrons is presented. After reviewing the
basic properties of quantum plasmas, we present model equations (e.g. the
quantum hydrodynamic and effective nonlinear Schr\"odinger-Poisson equations)
that describe collective nonlinear phenomena at nanoscales. The effects of the
electron degeneracy arise due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Pauli's
exclusion principle for overlapping electron wavefunctions that result in
tunneling of electrons and the electron degeneracy pressure. Since electrons
are Fermions (spin-1/2), there also appears an electron spin current and a spin
force acting on electrons due to the Bohr magnetization. The quantum effects
produce new aspects of electrostatic (ES) and electromagnetic (EM) waves in a
quantum plasma that are summarized in here. Furthermore, we discuss nonlinear
features of ES ion waves and electron plasma oscillations (ESOs), as well as
the trapping of intense EM waves in quantum electron density cavities.
Specifically, simulation studies of the coupled nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS)
and Poisson equations reveal the formation and dynamics of localized ES
structures at nanoscales in a quantum plasma. We also discuss the effect of an
external magnetic field on the plasma wave spectra and develop quantum
magnetohydrodynamic (Q-MHD) equations. The results are useful for understanding
numerous collective phenomena in quantum plasmas, such as those in compact
astrophysical objects, in plasma-assisted nanotechnology, and in the
next-generation of intense laser-solid density plasma interaction experiments.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures. To be published in Reviews of Modern Physic
Dependence of CMI Growth Rates on Electron Velocity Distributions and Perturbation by Solitary Waves
We calculate growth rates and corresponding gains for RX and LO mode
radiation associated with the cyclotron maser instability for parameterized
horseshoe electron velocity distributions. The velocity distribution function
was modeled to closely fit the electron distribution functions observed in the
auroral cavity. We systematically varied the model parameters as well as the
propagation direction to study the dependence of growth rates on model
parameters. The growth rate depends strongly on loss cone opening angle, which
must be less than for significant CMI growth. The growth rate is
sharply peaked for perpendicular radiation (), with a
full-width at half-maximum , in good agreement with observed k-vector
orientations and numerical simulations. The fractional bandwidth varied between
10 and 10, depending most strongly on propagation direction. This
range encompasses nearly all observed fractional AKR burst bandwidths. We find
excellent agreement between the computed RX mode emergent intensities and
observed AKR intensities assuming convective growth length 20-40 km
and group speed 0.15. The only computed LO mode growth rates compatible
observed LO mode radiation levels occurred for number densities more than 100
times the average energetic electron densities measured in auroral cavities.
This implies that LO mode radiation is not produced directly by the CMI
mechanism but more likely results from mode conversion of RX mode radiation. We
find that perturbation of the model velocity distribution by large ion solitary
waves (ion holes) can enhance the growth rate by a factor of 2-4. This will
result in a gain enhancement more than 40 dB depending on the convective growth
length within the structure. Similar enhancements may be caused by EMIC waves.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. J. Geophys. Res. 2007 (accepted
Distribution of resonances for open quantum maps
We analyze simple models of classical chaotic open systems and of their
quantizations (open quantum maps on the torus). Our models are similar to
models recently studied in atomic and mesoscopic physics. They provide a
numerical confirmation of the fractal Weyl law for the density of quantum
resonances of such systems. The exponent in that law is related to the
dimension of the classical repeller (or trapped set) of the system. In a
simplified model, a rigorous argument gives the full resonance spectrum, which
satisfies the fractal Weyl law. For this model, we can also compute a quantity
characterizing the fluctuations of conductance through the system, namely the
shot noise power: the value we obtain is close to the prediction of random
matrix theory.Comment: 60 pages, no figures (numerical results are shown in other
references
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