Nonlinear propagation of broadband intense electromagnetic waves in an electron-positron plasma

A kinetic equation describing the nonlinear evolution of intense electromagnetic pulses in electron-positron (e-p) plasmas is presented. The modulational instability is analyzed for a relativistically intense partially coherent pulse, and it is found that the modulational instability is inhibited by the spectral pulse broadening. A numerical study for the one-dimensional kinetic photon equation is presented. Computer simulations reveal a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-like recurrence phenomena for localized broadband pulses. The results should be of importance in understanding the nonlinear propagation of broadband intense electromagnetic pulses in e-p plasmas in laser-plasma systems as well as in astrophysical plasma settings.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Plasma

The Intense Radiation Gas

We present a new dispersion relation for photons that are nonlinearly interacting with a radiation gas of arbitrary intensity due to photon-photon scattering. It is found that the photon phase velocity decreases with increasing radiation intensity, it and attains a minimum value in the limit of super-intense fields. By using Hamilton's ray equations, a self-consistent kinetic theory for interacting photons is formulated. The interaction between an electromagnetic pulse and the radiation gas is shown to produce pulse self-compression and nonlinear saturation. Implications of our new results are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, version to appear in Europhys. Let

Self-compression and catastrophic collapse of photon bullets in vacuum

Photon-photon scattering, due to photons interacting with virtual electron-positron pairs, is an intriguing deviation from classical electromagnetism predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED). Apart from being of fundamental interest in itself, collisions between photons are believed to be of importance in the vicinity of magnetars, in the present generation intense lasers, and in intense laser-plasma/matter interactions; the latter recreating astrophysical conditions in the laboratory. We show that an intense photon pulse propagating through a radiation gas can self-focus, and under certain circumstances collapse. This is due to the response of the radiation background, creating a potential well in which the pulse gets trapped, giving rise to photonic solitary structures. When the radiation gas intensity has reached its peak values, the gas releases part of its energy into `photon wedges', similar to Cherenkov radiation. The results should be of importance for the present generation of intense lasers and for the understanding of localized gamma ray bursts in astrophysical environments. They could furthermore test the predictions of QED, and give means to create ultra-intense photonic pulses.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Fractional Lindstedt series

The parametric equations of the surfaces on which highly resonant quasi-periodic motions develop (lower-dimensional tori) cannot be analytically continued, in general, in the perturbation parameter, i.e. they are not analytic functions of the perturbation parameter. However rather generally quasi-periodic motions whose frequencies satisfy only one rational relation ("resonances of order 1") admit formal perturbation expansions in terms of a fractional power of the perturbation parameter, depending on the degeneration of the resonance. We find conditions for this to happen, and in such a case we prove that the formal expansion is convergent after suitable resummation.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figure

Instability and dynamics of two nonlinearly coupled laser beams in a plasma

We investigate the nonlinear interaction between two laser beams in a plasma in the weakly nonlinear and relativistic regime. The evolution of the laser beams is governed by two nonlinear Schroedinger equations that are coupled with the slow plasma density response. We 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.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Associations between pig leg health and lean meat growth in commercial organic herds

Sustainable development of organic pig production needs to include both animal welfare and productivity aspects. Knowledge about associations between animal welfare and productivity could be a key for constructive, long-term development of organic as well as conventional pig production systems. Poor leg health is considered a central animal welfare issue in organic pig production in Sweden. The preliminary results presented in this paper indicate that pigs in organic herds with more severe leg problems have poorer lean meat growth. However, the majority of the lame pigs had milder forms of leg problems, which were not found to be associated with lean meat growth

KAM for the quantum harmonic oscillator

In this paper we prove an abstract KAM theorem for infinite dimensional Hamiltonians systems. This result extends previous works of S.B. Kuksin and J. P\"oschel and uses recent techniques of H. Eliasson and S.B. Kuksin. As an application we show that some 1D nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations with harmonic potential admits many quasi-periodic solutions. In a second application we prove the reducibility of the 1D Schr\"odinger equations with the harmonic potential and a quasi periodic in time potential.Comment: 54 pages. To appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Predictions of local ground geomagnetic field fluctuations during the 7-10 November 2004 events studied with solar wind driven models

The 7-10 November 2004 period contains two events for which the local ground magnetic field was severely disturbed and simultaneously, the solar wind displayed several shocks and negative <i>B<sub>z</sub></i> periods. Using empirical models the 10-min RMS and at Brorfelde (BFE, 11.67° E, 55.63° N), Denmark, are predicted. The models are recurrent neural networks with 10-min solar wind plasma and magnetic field data as inputs. The predictions show a good agreement during 7 November, up until around noon on 8 November, after which the predictions become significantly poorer. The correlations between observed and predicted log RMS is 0.77 during 7-8 November but drops to 0.38 during 9-10 November. For RMS the correlations for the two periods are 0.71 and 0.41, respectively. Studying the solar wind data for other L1-spacecraft (WIND and SOHO) it seems that the ACE data have a better agreement to the near-Earth solar wind during the first two days as compared to the last two days. Thus, the accuracy of the predictions depends on the location of the spacecraft and the solar wind flow direction. Another finding, for the events studied here, is that the and models showed a very different dependence on <i>B<sub>z</sub></i>. The model is almost independent of the solar wind magnetic field <i>B<sub>z</sub></i>, except at times when <i>B<sub>z</sub></i> is exceptionally large or when the overall activity is low. On the contrary, the model shows a strong dependence on <i>B<sub>z</sub></i> at all times