1,942 research outputs found
Simulation study of the filamentation of counter-streaming beams of the electrons and positrons in plasmas
The filamentation instability driven by two spatially uniform and
counter-streaming beams of charged particles in plasmas is modelled by a
particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. Each beam consists of the electrons and
positrons. The four species are equally dense and they have the same
temperature. The one-dimensional simulation direction is orthogonal to the beam
velocity vector. The magnetic field grows spontaneously and rearranges the
particles in space, such that the distributions of the electrons of one beam
and the positrons of the second beam match. The simulation demonstrates that as
a result no electrostatic field is generated by the magnetic field through its
magnetic pressure gradient prior to its saturation. This electrostatic field
would be repulsive at the centres of the filaments and limit the maximum charge
and current density. The filaments of electrons and positrons in this
simulation reach higher charge and current densities than in one with no
positrons. The oscillations of the magnetic field strength induced by the
magnetically trapped particles result in an oscillatory magnetic pressure
gradient force. The latter interplays with the statistical fluctuations in the
particle density and it probably enforces a charge separation, by which
electrostatic waves grow after the filamentation instability has saturated.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
PIC Simulations of the Temperature Anisotropy-Driven Weibel Instability: Analyzing the perpendicular mode
An instability driven by the thermal anisotropy of a single electron species
is investigated in a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. This instability is
the one considered by Weibel and it differs from the beam driven filamentation
instability. A comparison of the simulation results with analytic theory
provides similar exponential growth rates of the magnetic field during the
linear growth phase of the instability. We observe in accordance with previous
works the growth of electric fields during the saturation phase of the
instability. Some components of this electric field are not accounted for by
the linearized theory. A single-fluid-based theory is used to determine the
source of this nonlinear electric field. It is demonstrated that the magnetic
stress tensor, which vanishes in a 1D geometry, is more important in this
2-dimensional model used here. The electric field grows to an amplitude, which
yields a force on the electrons that is comparable to the magnetic one. The
peak energy density of each magnetic field component in the simulation plane
agrees with previous estimates. Eddy currents develop, which let the amplitude
of the third magnetic field component grow, which is not observed in a 1D
simulation.Comment: accepted by Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio
The filamentation instability driven by warm electron beams: Statistics and electric field generation
The filamentation instability of counterpropagating symmetric beams of
electrons is examined with 1D and 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, which
are oriented orthogonally to the beam velocity vector. The beams are uniform,
warm and their relative speed is mildly relativistic. The dynamics of the
filaments is examined in 2D and it is confirmed that their characteristic size
increases linearly in time. Currents orthogonal to the beam velocity vector are
driven through the magnetic and electric fields in the simulation plane. The
fields are tied to the filament boundaries and the scale size of the
flow-aligned and the perpendicular currents are thus equal. It is confirmed
that the electrostatic and the magnetic forces are equally important, when the
filamentation instability saturates in 1D. Their balance is apparently the
saturation mechanism of the filamentation instability for our initial
conditions. The electric force is relatively weaker but not negligible in the
2D simulation, where the electron temperature is set higher to reduce the
computational cost. The magnetic pressure gradient is the principal source of
the electrostatic field, when and after the instability saturates in the 1D
simulation and in the 2D simulation.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted by the Plasma Physics and Controlled
Fusion (Special Issue EPS 2009
Particle-in-cell simulation of a mildly relativistic collision of an electron-ion plasma carrying a quasi-parallel magnetic field: Electron acceleration and magnetic field amplification at supernova shocks
Plasma processes close to SNR shocks result in the amplification of magnetic
fields and in the acceleration of electrons, injecting them into the diffusive
acceleration mechanism. The acceleration of electrons and the B field
amplification by the collision of two plasma clouds, each consisting of
electrons and ions, at a speed of 0.5c is investigated. A quasi-parallel
guiding magnetic field, a cloud density ratio of 10 and a plasma temperature of
25 keV are considered. A quasi-planar shock forms at the front of the dense
plasma cloud. It is mediated by a circularly left-hand polarized
electromagnetic wave with an electric field component along the guiding
magnetic field. Its propagation direction is close to that of the guiding field
and orthogonal to the collision boundary. It has a low frequency and a
wavelength that equals several times the ion inertial length, which would be
indicative of a dispersive Alfven wave close to the ion cyclotron resonance
frequency of the left-handed mode (ion whistler), provided that the frequency
is appropriate. However, it moves with the super-alfvenic plasma collision
speed, suggesting that it is an Alfven precursor or a nonlinear MHD wave such
as a Short Large-Amplitude Magnetic Structure (SLAMS). The growth of the
magnetic amplitude of this wave to values well in excess of those of the
quasi-parallel guiding field and of the filamentation modes results in a
quasi-perpendicular shock. We present evidence for the instability of this mode
to a four wave interaction. The waves developing upstream of the dense cloud
give rise to electron acceleration ahead of the collision boundary. Energy
equipartition between the ions and the electrons is established at the shock
and the electrons are accelerated to relativistic speeds.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication by Astron & Astrophy
Code Club at the MPI for Psychiatry
At the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPIP) people with different programming skills, from wet-lab scientists to bioinformaticians, work together. Also, quite a lot of PhD students who haven't received a formal education in computer science perform primarily computational work. After more than a one and half year break, we revived the Code Club at the MPIP with monthly meetings. There we hold tutorials about programming topics, discuss problems encountered in the last month and find partners for code review. Our main goal is to increase the quality of the research software and scripts developed and used for our research at the MPIP. In the talk, I will give an overview about our motivation and the implementation of the Code Club
Can fisheries-induced evolution shift reference points for fisheries management?
Biological reference points are important tools for fisheries management. Reference points are not static, but may change when a population's environment or the population itself changes. Fisheries-induced evolution is one mechanism that can alter population characteristics, leading to 'shifting' reference points by modifying the underlying biological processes or by changing the perception of a fishery system. The former causes changes in 'true' reference points, whereas the latter is caused by changes in the yardsticks used to quantify a system's status. Unaccounted shifts of either kind imply that reference points gradually lose their intended meaning. This can lead to increased precaution, which is safe, but potentially costly. Shifts can also occur in more perilous directions, such that actual risks are greater than anticipated. Our qualitative analysis suggests that all commonly used reference points are susceptible to shifting through fisheries-induced evolution, including the limit and 'precautionary' reference points for spawning-stock biomass, Blim and Bpa, and the target reference point for fishing mortality, F0.1. Our findings call for increased awareness of fisheries-induced changes and highlight the value of always basing reference points on adequately updated information, to capture all changes in the biological processes that drive fish population dynamics
On the performance of four methods for the numerical solution of ecologically realistic size-structured population models
Size-structured population models (SSPMs) are widely used in ecology to account for intraspecific variation in body size. Three characteristic features of size-structured populations are the dependence of life histories on the entire size distribution, intrinsic population renewal through the birth of new individuals, and the potential accumulation of individuals with similar body sizes due to determinate or stunted growth. Because of these three features, numerical methods that work well for structurally similar transport equations may fail for SSPMs and other transport-dominated models with high ecological realism, and thus their computational performance needs to be critically evaluated.
Here, we compare the performance of four numerical solution schemes, the fixed-mesh upwind (FMU) method, the moving-mesh upwind (MMU) method, the characteristic method (CM), and the Escalator Boxcar Train (EBT) method, in numerically solving three reference problems that are representative of ecological systems in the animal and plant kingdoms. The MMU method is here applied for the first time to SSPMs, whereas the three other methods have been employed by other authors.
Our results show that the EBT method performs best, except for one of the three reference problems, in which size-asymmetric competition affects individual growth rates. For that reference problem, the FMU method performs best, closely followed by the MMU method. Surprisingly, the CM method does not perform well for any of the three reference problems.
We conclude that life-history features should be considered when choosing numerical method
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