3,529 research outputs found
On the Spectrum of the Resonant Quantum Kicked Rotor
It is proven that none of the bands in the quasi-energy spectrum of the
Quantum Kicked Rotor is flat at any primitive resonance of any order.
Perturbative estimates of bandwidths at small kick strength are established for
the case of primitive resonances of prime order. Different bands scale with
different powers of the kick strength, due to degeneracies in the spectrum of
the free rotor.Comment: Description of related published work has been expanded in the
Introductio
Acceleration Mechanics in Relativistic Shocks by the Weibel Instability
Plasma instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream
instabilities) created in collisionless shocks may be responsible for particle
(electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic
electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated long-term particle
acceleration associated with relativistic electron-ion or electron-positron jet
fronts propagating into an unmagnetized ambient electron-ion or
electron-positron plasma. These simulations have been performed with a longer
simulation system than our previous simulations in order to investigate the
nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability and its particle acceleration
mechanism. The current channels generated by the Weibel instability are
surrounded by toroidal magnetic fields and radial electric fields. This radial
electric field is quasi stationary and accelerates particles which are then
deflected by the magnetic field.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, A full
resolution ot the paper can be found at
http://gammaray.nsstc.nasa.gov/~nishikawa/accmec.pd
Energy transfer in binary collisions of two gyrating charged particles in a magnetic field
Binary collisions of the gyrating charged particles in an external magnetic
field are considered within a classical second-order perturbation theory, i.e.,
up to contributions which are quadratic in the binary interaction, starting
from the unperturbed helical motion of the particles. The calculations are done
with the help of a binary collisions treatment which is valid for any strength
of the magnetic field and involves all harmonics of the particles cyclotron
motion. The energy transfer is explicitly calculated for a regularized and
screened potential which is both of finite range and nonsingular at the origin.
The validity of the perturbation treatment is evaluated by comparing with
classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) calculations which also allow to
investigate the strong collisions with large energy and velocity transfer at
low velocities. For large initial velocities on the other hand, only small
velocity transfers occur. There the nonperturbative numerical CTMC results
agree excellently with the predictions of the perturbative treatment.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Particle Acceleration and Radiation associated with Magnetic Field Generation from Relativistic Collisionless Shocks
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability,
two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks
are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using
a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating
through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find
only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient
magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the
collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to
the jet propagation direction. The simulation results show that this
instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform,
small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron's transverse
deflection behind the jet head. The ``jitter'' radiation from deflected
electrons has different properties than synchrotron radiation which is
calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important
to understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in
gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Proceedings of 2003 Gamma Ray Burst
Conferenc
Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and
other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible
for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D
relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet
front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without
initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no
ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. New simulations show that the
Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and
ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation
direction. Furthermore, the non-linear fluctuation amplitudes of densities,
currents, electric, and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are
larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper
at the comparable simulation time. This comes from the fact that both electrons
and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. Additionally,
we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that
growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of
structures created by the Weibel instability scale proportional to the electron
skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have
sufficient grid resolution. The simulation results show that the Weibel
instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform,
small-scale magnetic fields which contribute to the electron's (positron's)
transverse deflection behind the jet head.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, revised and accepted for ApJ, A full resolution
of the paper can be found at
http://gammaray.nsstc.nasa.gov/~nishikawa/apjep1.pd
Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Jets due to Weibel Instability
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability,
two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks
are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using
a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating
through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find
only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient
magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the
collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to
the jet propagation direction. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the
jet front, the majority of electron acceleration takes place behind the jet
front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results
show that this instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly
nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron's
transverse deflection behind the jet head. The ``jitter'' radiation (Medvedev
2000) from deflected electrons has different properties than synchrotron
radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter
radiation may be important to understanding the complex time evolution and/or
spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova
remnants.Comment: ApJ, in press, Sept. 20, 2003 (figures with better resolution:
http://gammaray.nsstc.nasa.gov/~nishikawa/apjweib.pdf
Multifractals Competing with Solitons on Fibonacci Optical Lattice
We study the stationary states for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on
the Fibonacci lattice which is expected to be realized by Bose-Einstein
condensates loaded into an optical lattice. When the model does not have a
nonlinear term, the wavefunctions and the spectrum are known to show fractal
structures. Such wavefunctions are called critical. We present a phase diagram
of the energy spectrum for varying the nonlinearity. It consists of three
portions, a forbidden region, the spectrum of critical states, and the spectrum
of stationary solitons. We show that the energy spectrum of critical states
remains intact irrespective of the nonlinearity in the sea of a large number of
stationary solitons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, major revision, references adde
Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation, and Associated Emission in Collisionless Relativistic Jets
Nonthermal radiation observed from astrophysical systems containing
relativistic jets and shocks, e.g., active galactic nuclei (AGNs), gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs), and Galactic microquasar systems usually have power-law emission
spectra. Recent PIC simulations using injected relativistic electron-ion
(electro-positron) jets show that acceleration occurs within the downstream
jet. Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability,
other two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the
shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration.
The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for
generating and amplifying highly nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields. These
magnetic fields contribute to the electron's transverse deflection behind the
jet head. The ``jitter'' radiation from deflected electrons has different
properties than synchrotron radiation which assumes a uniform magnetic field.
This jitter radiation may be important to understanding the complex time
evolution and/or spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and
supernova remnants.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, contributed talk at the workshop: High Energy
Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows (HEPRO), Dublin, 24-28 September 2007.
Fig. 3 is replaced by the correct versio
Scar Intensity Statistics in the Position Representation
We obtain general predictions for the distribution of wave function
intensities in position space on the periodic orbits of chaotic ballistic
systems. The expressions depend on effective system size N, instability
exponent lambda of the periodic orbit, and proximity to a focal point of the
orbit. Limiting expressions are obtained that include the asymptotic
probability distribution of rare high-intensity events and a perturbative
formula valid in the limit of weak scarring. For finite system sizes, a single
scaling variable lambda N describes deviations from the semiclassical N ->
infinity limit.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. E, 10 pages, including 4 figure
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