A naked singularity stable under scalar field perturbations

We prove the stability of a spacetime with a naked singularity under scalar field perturbations, where the perturbations are regular at the singularity. This spacetime, found by Janis, Newman and Winicour, and independently by Wyman, is sourced by a massless scalar field and also arises as a certain limit of a class of charged dilatonic solutions in string theory. This stability result opens up specific questions for investigation related to the cosmic censorship conjecture and the mechanism by which it is implemented in nature.Comment: 19 pages, version to appear in IJMPD, references adde

Nonlinear Electron Oscillations in a Viscous and Resistive Plasma

New non-linear, spatially periodic, long wavelength electrostatic modes of an electron fluid oscillating against a motionless ion fluid (Langmuir waves) are given, with viscous and resistive effects included. The cold plasma approximation is adopted, which requires the wavelength to be sufficiently large. The pertinent requirement valid for large amplitude waves is determined. The general non-linear solution of the continuity and momentum transfer equations for the electron fluid along with Poisson's equation is obtained in simple parametric form. It is shown that in all typical hydrogen plasmas, the influence of plasma resistivity on the modes in question is negligible. Within the limitations of the solution found, the non-linear time evolution of any (periodic) initial electron number density profile n_e(x, t=0) can be determined (examples). For the modes in question, an idealized model of a strictly cold and collisionless plasma is shown to be applicable to any real plasma, provided that the wavelength lambda >> lambda_{min}(n_0,T_e), where n_0 = const and T_e are the equilibrium values of the electron number density and electron temperature. Within this idealized model, the minimum of the initial electron density n_e(x_{min}, t=0) must be larger than half its equilibrium value, n_0/2. Otherwise, the corresponding maximum n_e(x_{max},t=tau_p/2), obtained after half a period of the plasma oscillation blows up. Relaxation of this restriction on n_e(x, t=0) as one decreases lambda, due to the increase of the electron viscosity effects, is examined in detail. Strong plasma viscosity is shown to change considerably the density profile during the time evolution, e.g., by splitting the largest maximum in two.Comment: 16 one column pages, 11 figures, Abstract and Sec. I, extended, Sec. VIII modified, Phys. Rev. E in pres

High Energy Electron Confinement in a Magnetic Cusp Configuration

We report experimental results validating the concept that plasma confinement is enhanced in a magnetic cusp configuration when beta (plasma pressure/magnetic field pressure) is order of unity. This enhancement is required for a fusion power reactor based on cusp confinement to be feasible. The magnetic cusp configuration possesses a critical advantage: the plasma is stable to large scale perturbations. However, early work indicated that plasma loss rates in a reactor based on a cusp configuration were too large for net power production. Grad and others theorized that at high beta a sharp boundary would form between the plasma and the magnetic field, leading to substantially smaller loss rates. The current experiment validates this theoretical conjecture for the first time and represents critical progress toward the Polywell fusion concept which combines a high beta cusp configuration with an electrostatic fusion for a compact, economical, power-producing nuclear fusion reactor.Comment: 12 pages, figures included. 5 movies in Ancillary file

Space-filter techniques for quasi-neutral hybrid-kinetic models

The space-filter approach has proved a fundamental tool in studying turbulence in neutral fluids, providing the ability to analyze scale-to-scale energy transfer in configuration space. It is well known that turbulence in plasma presents challenges different from neutral fluids, especially when the scale of interests include kinetic effects. The space-filter approach is still largely unexplored for kinetic plasma. Here we derive the space-filtered (or, equivalently "coarse-grained") equations in configuration space for a quasi-neutral hybrid-kinetic plasma model, in which ions are fully kinetic and electrons are a neutralizing fluid. Different models and closures for the electron fluid are considered, including finite electron-inertia effects and full electrons' pressure-tensor dynamics. Implications for the cascade of turbulent fluctuations in real space depending on different approximations are discussed.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figure

Thermalization vs. Isotropization & Azimuthal Fluctuations

Hydrodynamic description requires a local thermodynamic equilibrium of the system under study but an approximate hydrodynamic behaviour is already manifested when a momentum distribution of liquid components is not of equilibrium form but merely isotropic. While the process of equilibration is relatively slow, the parton system becomes isotropic rather fast due to the plasma instabilities. Azimuthal fluctuations observed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are argued to distinguish between a fully equilibrated and only isotropic parton system produced in the collision early stage.Comment: 12 pages, presented at `Correlations and Fluctuations in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions', MIT, April 05, minor correction

A Coronal Hole's Effects on CME Shock Morphology in the Inner Heliosphere

We use STEREO imagery to study the morphology of a shock driven by a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) launched from the Sun on 2011 March 7. The source region of the CME is located just to the east of a coronal hole. The CME ejecta is deflected away from the hole, in contrast with the shock, which readily expands into the fast outflow from the coronal hole. The result is a CME with ejecta not well centered within the shock surrounding it. The shock shape inferred from the imaging is compared with in situ data at 1 AU, where the shock is observed near Earth by the Wind spacecraft, and at STEREO-A. Shock normals computed from the in situ data are consistent with the shock morphology inferred from imaging.Comment: to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Parameter dependence of magnetized CMB observables

Pre-decoupling magnetic fields affect the scalar modes of the geometry and produce observable effects which can be constrained also through the use of current (as opposed to forthcoming) data stemming from the Cosmic Microwave Background observations. The dependence of the temperature and polarization angular power spectra upon the parameters of an ambient magnetic field is encoded in the scaling properties of a set of basic integrals whose derivation is simplified in the limit of small angular scales. The magnetically-induced distortions patterns of the relevant observables can be computed analytically by employing scaling considerations which are corroborated by numerical results.Comment: 48 pages, 11 figures; corrected minor typos; discussions added; to appear in Physical Revie

Effective dynamics of a nonabelian plasma out of equilibrium

Starting from kinetic theory, we obtain a nonlinear dissipative formalism describing the nonequilibrium evolution of scalar colored particles coupled selfconsistently to nonabelian classical gauge fields. The link between the one-particle distribution function of the kinetic description and the variables of the effective theory is determined by extremizing the entropy production. This method does not rely on the usual gradient expansion in fluid dynamic variables, and therefore the resulting effective theory can handle situations where these gradients (and hence the momentum-space anisotropies) are expected to be large. The formalism presented here, being computationally less demanding than kinetic theory, may be useful as a simplified model of the dynamics of color fields during the early stages of heavy ion collisions and in phenomena related to parton energy loss.Comment: 20 two-column pages, 2 figures. v3: minor changes. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Free streaming in mixed dark matter

Free streaming in a \emph{mixture} of collisionless non-relativistic dark matter (DM) particles is studied by implementing methods from the theory of multicomponent plasmas. The mixture includes Fermionic, condensed and non condensed Bosonic particles decoupling in equilibrium while relativistic, heavy non-relativistic thermal relics (WIMPs), and sterile neutrinos that decouple \emph{out of equilibrium} when they are relativistic. The free-streaming length $\lambda_{fs}$ is obtained from the marginal zero of the gravitational polarization function, which separates short wavelength Landau-damped from long wavelength Jeans-unstable \emph{collective} modes. At redshift $z$ we find $\frac{1}{\lambda^2_{fs}(z)}= \frac{1}{(1+z)} \big[\frac{0.071}{\textrm{kpc}} \big]^2 \sum_{a}\nu_a g^{2/3}_{d,a}({m_a}/{\mathrm{keV}})^2 I_a$,where $0\leq \nu_a \leq 1$ are the \emph{fractions} of the respective DM components of mass $m_a$ that decouple when the effective number of ultrarelativistic degrees of freedom is $g_{d,a}$, and $I_a$ only depend on the distribution functions at decoupling, given explicitly in all cases. If sterile neutrinos produced either resonantly or non-resonantly that decouple near the QCD scale are the \emph{only} DM component,we find $\lambda_{fs}(0) \simeq 7 \mathrm{kpc} (\mathrm{keV}/m)$ (non-resonant), $\lambda_{fs}(0) \simeq 1.73 \mathrm{kpc} (\mathrm{keV}/m)$ (resonant).If WIMPs with $m_{wimp} \gtrsim 100 \mathrm{GeV}$ decoupling at $T_d \gtrsim 10 \mathrm{MeV}$ are present in the mixture with $\nu_{wimp} \gg 10^{-12}$,$\lambda_{fs}(0) \lesssim 6.5 \times 10^{-3} \mathrm{pc}$ is \emph{dominated} by CDM. If a Bose Einstein condensate is a DM component its free streaming length is consistent with CDM because of the infrared enhancement of the distribution function.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. More discussions same conclusions and results. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.