Stochastic electron heating in the laser and quasi-static electric and magnetic fields

The dynamics of relativistic electrons in the intense laser radiation and quasi-static electromagnetic fields both along and across to the laser propagating direction are studied in the 3/2 dimensional Hamiltonian framework. It is shown that the unperturbed oscillations of the relativistic electron in these electric fields could exhibit a long tail of harmonics which makes an onset of stochastic electron motion be a primary candidate for electron heating. The Poincar\'e mappings describing the electron motions in the laser and electric fields only are derived from which the criterions for instability are obtained. It follows that for both transverse and longitudinal electric fields, there exist upper limits of the stochastic electron energy depending on the laser intensity and electric field strength. Specifically, these maximum stochastic energies are enhanced by a strong laser intensity but weak electric field. Such stochastic heating would be reduced by the superluminal phase velocity in both cases. The impacts of the magnetic fields on the electron dynamics are different for these two cases and discussed qualitatively. These analytic results are confirmed by the numerical simulations of solving the 3/2D Hamiltonian equations directly

Axisymmetric equilibria of a gravitating plasma with incompressible flows

It is found that the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium of an axisymmetric gravitating magnetically confined plasma with incompressible flows is governed by a second-order elliptic differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function containing five flux functions coupled with a Poisson equation for the gravitation potential, and an algebraic relation for the pressure. This set of equations is amenable to analytic solutions. As an application, the magnetic-dipole static axisymmetric equilibria with vanishing poloidal plasma currents derived recently by Krasheninnikov, Catto, and Hazeltine [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 2689 (1999)] are extended to plasmas with finite poloidal currents, subject to gravitating forces from a massive body (a star or black hole) and inertial forces due to incompressible sheared flows. Explicit solutions are obtained in two regimes: (a) in the low-energy regime $\beta_0\approx \gamma_0\approx \delta_0 \approx\epsilon_0\ll 1$, where $\beta_0$, $\gamma_0$, $\delta_0$, and $\epsilon_0$ are related to the thermal, poloidal-current, flow and gravitating energies normalized to the poloidal-magnetic-field energy, respectively, and (b) in the high-energy regime $\beta_0\approx \gamma_0\approx \delta_0 \approx\epsilon_0\gg 1$. It turns out that in the high-energy regime all four forces, pressure-gradient, toroidal-magnetic-field, inertial, and gravitating contribute equally to the formation of magnetic surfaces very extended and localized about the symmetry plane such that the resulting equilibria resemble the accretion disks in astrophysics.Comment: 12 pages, latex, to be published in Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dynamic

Axisymmetric plasma equilibrium in gravitational and magnetic fields

Plasma equilibria in gravitational and open-ended magnetic fields are considered for the case of topologically disconnected regions of the magnetic flux surfaces where plasma occupies just one of these regions. Special dependences of the plasma temperature and density on the magnetic flux are used which allow the solution of the Grad–Shafranov equation in a separable form permitting analytic treatment. It is found that plasma pressure tends to play the dominant role in the setting the shape of magnetic field equilibrium, while a strong gravitational force localizes the plasma density to a thin disc centered at the equatorial plane

Aspherical PIC code (APIC) for modeling non-spherical dust in plasmas using shape-conforming coordinates

The 2D3V Aspherical Particle-in-Cell (APIC) code is developed for modeling of interactions of non-spherical dust grains with plasmas. It simulates the motion of plasma electrons and ions in a self-consistent electric field of plasma-screened charged dust particle. Due to absorption/recombination of plasma particles impinging on the grain surface, they transfer charge, momentum, angular momentum, as well as kinetic and binding energy, creating currents, forces, torques, and heat fluxes to the grain. The values of such physical parameters determine dust behavior in plasma, including its dynamics and ablation, and can be used in various plasma studies and applications, such as dusty plasmas, fusion devices, laboratory experiments, and astrophysical research. Obtaining these physical values for select non-spherical shapes of conducting dust grains is the main goal of the APIC code simulations