Phase mixing in MOND

Dissipationless collapses in Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) have been studied by using our MOND particle-mesh N-body code, finding that the projected density profiles of the final virialized systems are well described by Sersic profiles with index m<4 (down to m~2 for a deep-MOND collapse). The simulations provided also strong evidence that phase mixing is much less effective in MOND than in Newtonian gravity. Here we describe "ad hoc" numerical simulations with the force angular components frozen to zero, thus producing radial collapses. Our previous findings are confirmed, indicating that possible differences in radial orbit instability under Newtonian and MOND gravity are not relevant in the present context.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the International Workshop "Collective Phenomena in Macroscopic Systems", G. Bertin, R. Pozzoli, M. Rome, and K.R. Sreenivasan, eds., World Scientific, Singapor

N-MODY: a code for collisionless N-body simulations in modified Newtonian dynamics

We describe the numerical code N-MODY, a parallel particle-mesh code for collisionless N-body simulations in modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). N-MODY is based on a numerical potential solver in spherical coordinates that solves the non-linear MOND field equation, and is ideally suited to simulate isolated stellar systems. N-MODY can be used also to compute the MOND potential of arbitrary static density distributions. A few applications of N-MODY indicate that some astrophysically relevant dynamical processes are profoundly different in MOND and in Newtonian gravity with dark matter.Comment: 8 pages, 1 color figure, to appear in Proceedings of the workshop "Computational Astrophysics in Italy: results and perspectives", Rome - March 12, 2008, Memorie della SAIt Supplement

Vertical dynamics of disk galaxies in MOND

We investigate the possibility of discriminating between Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Newtonian gravity with dark matter, by studying the vertical dynamics of disk galaxies. We consider models with the same circular velocity in the equatorial plane (purely baryonic disks in MOND and the same disks in Newtonian gravity embedded in spherical dark matter haloes), and we construct their intrinsic and projected kinematical fields by solving the Jeans equations under the assumption of a two-integral distribution function. We found that the vertical velocity dispersion of deep-MOND disks can be much larger than in the equivalent spherical Newtonian models. However, in the more realistic case of high-surface density disks this effect is significantly reduced, casting doubts on the possibility of discriminating between MOND and Newtonian gravity with dark matter by using current observations.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Added referenc

ECHO: an Eulerian Conservative High Order scheme for general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and magnetodynamics

We present a new numerical code, ECHO, based on an Eulerian Conservative High Order scheme for time dependent three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) and magnetodynamics (GRMD). ECHO is aimed at providing a shock-capturing conservative method able to work at an arbitrary level of formal accuracy (for smooth flows), where the other existing GRMHD and GRMD schemes yield an overall second order at most. Moreover, our goal is to present a general framework, based on the 3+1 Eulerian formalism, allowing for different sets of equations, different algorithms, and working in a generic space-time metric, so that ECHO may be easily coupled to any solver for Einstein's equations. Various high order reconstruction methods are implemented and a two-wave approximate Riemann solver is used. The induction equation is treated by adopting the Upwind Constrained Transport (UCT) procedures, appropriate to preserve the divergence-free condition of the magnetic field in shock-capturing methods. The limiting case of magnetodynamics (also known as force-free degenerate electrodynamics) is implemented by simply replacing the fluid velocity with the electromagnetic drift velocity and by neglecting the matter contribution to the stress tensor. ECHO is particularly accurate, efficient, versatile, and robust. It has been tested against several astrophysical applications, including a novel test on the propagation of large amplitude circularly polarized Alfven waves. In particular, we show that reconstruction based on a Monotonicity Preserving filter applied to a fixed 5-point stencil gives highly accurate results for smooth solutions, both in flat and curved metric (up to the nominal fifth order), while at the same time providing sharp profiles in tests involving discontinuities.Comment: 20 pages, revised version submitted to A&

Galaxy merging in MOND

We present the results of N-body simulations of dissipationless galaxy merging in Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). For comparison, we also studied Newtonian merging between galaxies embedded in dark matter halos, with internal dynamics equivalent to the MOND systems. We found that the merging timescales are significantly longer in MOND than in Newtonian gravity with dark matter, suggesting that observational evidence of rapid merging could be difficult to explain in MOND. However, when two galaxies eventually merge, the MOND merging end-product is hardly distinguishable from the final stellar distribution of an equivalent Newtonian merger with dark matter.Comment: 5 pages, 2 color figures. To appear in MNRAS Letters. Added references and discussion, conclusions unchange

Characterisation of beam driven ionisation injection in the blowout regime of Plasma Acceleration

Beam driven ionisation injection is characterised for a variety of high-Z dopant. We discuss the region of extraction and why the position where electrons are captured influences the final quality of the internally-injected bunch. The beam driven ionisation injection relies on the capability to produce a high gradient fields at the bubble closure, with magnitudes high enough to ionise by tunnelling effect the still bounded electrons (of a high-Z dopant). The ionised electrons are captured by the nonlinear plasma wave at the accelerating and focusing wake phase leading to high-brightness trailing bunches. The high transformer ratio guarantees that the ionisation only occurs at the bubble closure. The quality of the ionisation-injected trailing bunches strongly and non-linearly depends on the properties of the dopant gas (density and initial ionisation state). We use the full 3D PIC code ${\tt ALaDyn}$ to consider the highly three-dimensional nature of the effect. By means of a systematic approach we have investigated the emittance and energy spread formation and the evolution for different dopant gases and configurations

Laser ion acceleration using a solid target coupled with a low density layer

We investigate by particle-in-cell simulations in two and three dimensions the laser-plasma interaction and the proton acceleration in multilayer targets where a low density "near-critical" layer of a few micron thickness is added on the illuminated side of a thin, high density layer. This target design can be obtained by depositing a "foam" layer on a thin metallic foil. The presence of the near-critical plasma strongly increases both the conversion efficiency and the energy of electrons and leads to enhanced acceleration of proton from a rear side layer via the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration mechanism. The electrons of the foam are strongly accelerated in the forward direction and propagate on the rear side of the target building up a high electric field with a relatively flat longitudinal profile. In these conditions the maximum proton energy is up to three times higher than in the case of the bare solid target.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Three-dimensional evolution of magnetic and velocity shear driven instabilities in a compressible magnetized jet

The problem of three-dimensional combined magnetic and velocity shear driven instabilities of a compressible magnetized jet modeled with a plane neutral/current double vortex sheet in the framework of the resistive magnetohydrodynamics is addressed. The resulting dynamics given by the stream+current sheet interaction is analyzed and the effects of a variable geometry of the basic fields are considered. Depending on the basic asymptotic magnetic field configuration, a selection rule of the linear instability modes can be obtained. Hence, the system follows a two-stage path developing either through a fully three-dimensional dynamics with a rapid evolution of kink modes leading to a final turbulent state, or rather through a driving two-dimensional instability pattern that develops on parallel planes on which a reconnection+coalescence process takes place.Comment: 33 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasma

The REsonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection

The production of high-quality electron bunches in Laser Wake Field Acceleration relies on the possibility to inject ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. In this paper we present a new bunch injection scheme in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasma wave driven by a train of resonant ultrashort pulses. In the REsonant Multi-Pulse Ionization (REMPI) injection scheme, the main portion of a single ultrashort (e.g Ti:Sa) laser system pulse is temporally shaped as a sequence of resonant sub-pulses, while a minor portion acts as an ionizing pulse. Simulations show that high-quality electron bunches with normalized emittance as low as $0.08$ mm$\times$mrad and $0.65\%$ energy spread can be obtained with a single present-day 100TW-class Ti:Sa laser system