Vlasov Simulations of Trapping and Inhomogeneity in Raman Scattering

We study stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in laser-fusion conditions with the Eulerian Vlasov code ELVIS. Back SRS from homogeneous plasmas occurs in sub-picosecond bursts and far exceeds linear theory. Forward SRS and re-scatter of back SRS are also observed. The plasma wave frequency downshifts from the linear dispersion curve, and the electron distribution shows flattening. This is consistent with trapping and reduces the Landau damping. There is some acoustic ($\omega\propto k$) activity and possibly electron acoustic scatter. Kinetic ions do not affect SRS for early times but suppress it later on. SRS from inhomogeneous plasmas exhibits a kinetic enhancement for long density scale lengths. More scattering results when the pump propagates to higher as opposed to lower density.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to "Journal of Plasmas Physics" for the conference proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Plasma

Microwave Electronics

Contains reports on three research projects.Lincoln Laboratory, Purchase Order DDL B-00337U. S. Navy (Office of Naval Research) under Contract Nonr-1841(49)U. S. Air Force under Air Force Contract AF19(604)-7400U. S. NavyU. S. Arm

Advanced 3-D electron kinetic calculations for the current drive problem in magnetically confined thermonuclear plasmas

12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France)Accurate and fast electron kinetic calculations is a challenging issue for realistic simulations of thermonuclear tokamak plasmas. Relativistic corrections and electron trajectory effects must be fully taken into account for high temperature burning plasmas, while codes should also consistently describe wave-particle resonant interactions in presence of locally large gradients close to internal transport barrier. In that case, neoclassical effects may come into play and self-consistent evaluation of both the radio-frequency and bootstrap currents must be performed. In addition, a complex interplay between momentum and radial electron dynamics may take place, in presence of a possible energy dependent radial transport. Besides the physics needs, there are considerable numerical issues to solve, in order to reduce computer time consumption and memory requirements at an acceptable level, so that kinetic calculations may be valuably incorporated in a chain of codes which determines plasma equilibrium and wave propagation. So far, fully implicit 3-D calculations based a finite difference scheme and a incomplete LU factorization have been found to be so most effective method to reach this goal. A review of the present status in this active field of physics is presented, with an emphasis on possible future improvement

Kinetic Enhancement of Raman Backscatter, and Electron Acoustic Thomson Scatter

1-D Eulerian Vlasov-Maxwell simulations are presented which show kinetic enhancement of stimulated Raman backscatter (SRBS) due to electron trapping in regimes of heavy linear Landau damping. The conventional Raman Langmuir wave is transformed into a set of beam acoustic modes [L. Yin et al., Phys. Rev. E 73, 025401 (2006)]. For the first time, a low phase velocity electron acoustic wave (EAW) is seen developing from the self-consistent Raman physics. Backscatter of the pump laser off the EAW fluctuations is reported and referred to as electron acoustic Thomson scatter. This light is similar in wavelength to, although much lower in amplitude than, the reflected light between the pump and SRBS wavelengths observed in single hot spot experiments, and previously interpreted as stimulated electron acoustic scatter [D. S. Montgomery et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 155001 (2001)]. The EAW is strongest well below the phase-matched frequency for electron acoustic scatter, and therefore the EAW is not produced by it. The beating of different beam acoustic modes is proposed as the EAW excitation mechanism, and is called beam acoustic decay. Supporting evidence for this process, including bispectral analysis, is presented. The linear electrostatic modes, found by projecting the numerical distribution function onto a Gauss-Hermite basis, include beam acoustic modes (some of which are unstable even without parametric coupling to light waves) and a strongly-damped EAW similar to the observed one. This linear EAW results from non-Maxwellian features in the electron distribution, rather than nonlinearity due to electron trapping.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted in Physics of Plasmas (2006

Microwave Electronics

Contains reports on two research projects

The Hamiltonian structure and Euler-Poincar\'{e} formulation of the Vlasov-Maxwell and gyrokinetic systems

We present a new variational principle for the gyrokinetic system, similar to the Maxwell-Vlasov action presented in Ref. 1. The variational principle is in the Eulerian frame and based on constrained variations of the phase space fluid velocity and particle distribution function. Using a Legendre transform, we explicitly derive the field theoretic Hamiltonian structure of the system. This is carried out with a modified Dirac theory of constraints, which is used to construct meaningful brackets from those obtained directly from Euler-Poincar\'{e} theory. Possible applications of these formulations include continuum geometric integration techniques, large-eddy simulation models and Casimir type stability methods. [1] H. Cendra et. al., Journal of Mathematical Physics 39, 3138 (1998)Comment: 36 pages, 1 figur

Thurston's pullback map on the augmented Teichm\"uller space and applications

Let $f$ be a postcritically finite branched self-cover of a 2-dimensional topological sphere. Such a map induces an analytic self-map $\sigma_f$ of a finite-dimensional Teichm\"uller space. We prove that this map extends continuously to the augmented Teichm\"uller space and give an explicit construction for this extension. This allows us to characterize the dynamics of Thurston's pullback map near invariant strata of the boundary of the augmented Teichm\"uller space. The resulting classification of invariant boundary strata is used to prove a conjecture by Pilgrim and to infer further properties of Thurston's pullback map. Our approach also yields new proofs of Thurston's theorem and Pilgrim's Canonical Obstruction theorem.Comment: revised version, 28 page