The effects of friction on the ion acoustic (IA) wave in fully and partially ionized plasmas are studied. In a quasi-neutral electron-ion plasma the friction between the two species cancels out exactly and the wave propagates without any damping. If the Poisson equation is used instead of the quasi-neutrality, however, the IA wave is damped and the damping is dispersive. In a partially ionized plasma, the collisions with the neutrals modify the IA wave beyond recognition. For a low density of neutrals the mode is damped. Upon increasing the neutral density, the mode becomes first evanescent and then reappears for a still larger number of neutrals. A similar behavior is obtained by varying the mode wave-length. The explanation for this behavior is given. In an inhomogeneous plasma placed in an external magnetic field, and for magnetized electrons and un-magnetized ions, the IA mode propagates in any direction and in this case the collisions make it growing on the account of the energy stored in the density gradient. The growth rate is angle dependent. A comparison with the collision-less kinetic density gradient driven IA instability is also given.
The formula for dielectric function of non-degenerate and maxwellian collisional plasmas is transformed to the form, convenient for research. Graphic comparison of longitudinal dielectric functions of quantum and classical non-degenerate collisional plasmas is made.
The kinetic description of magnetic susceptibility and Landau diamagnetism of quantum collisional plasmas with any degeration of electronic gas is given. The correct expression of electric conductivity of quantum collisional plasmas with any degeration of electronic gas (see A. V. Latyshev and A. A. Yushkanov, Transverse electrical conductivity of a quantum collisional plasma in the Mermin approach. - Theor. and Math. Phys., V. 175(1):559-569 (2013)) is used.
Kinetic model of three component, weakly ionized, collisional plasma with a beam of neutral particles is developed. New dispersion relations for linear perturbations are derived and analyzed in various limiting cases.
The properties of obliquely propagating dissipative electron-acoustic solitary waves (OPdEASWs) have been investigated in a magnetized collisional superthermal plasma consisting of inertial cold electrons, inertialess hot electrons featuring kappa-distribution and static ions via the fluid dynamical approach. By using the reductive perturbation technique, a nonlinear Schamel equation that governs the nonlinear features of OPdEASWS is obtained. The solitary wave solution of the Schamel equation is used to examine the basic features of small, but finite amplitude OPdEASWs in such a magnetized co…
The collisional coupling of relativistic electrons and non-relativistic ions in hot plasmas has been analysed. It is found that relativistic effects produce a new feature: while the condition T_e<3T_i guarantees a stable collisional coupling between electrons and ions in low-temperature plasmas, relativistic effects shift the upper T_e/T_i boundary of stability to higher values. Moreover, for sufficiently high temperatures, T_{e,i} > 75 keV, collisional decoupling between relativistic electrons and ions becomes impossible.
We analyze the role of collisional effects on the coupling between ion-acoustic waves and neutrino flavor oscillations, discussing its relevance for plasma instabilities in extreme plasma environments like in type II supernovae, where intense neutrino bursts exist. Electrons (leptons) are coupled to the electron-neutrino fluid through the weak Fermi force, but the electron-neutrinos are allowed to convert to other neutrino flavors and vice-versa. Due to the typically slow frequency of neutrino flavor oscillations, many orders smaller than e.g. the plasma frequency, an effective energy transfer…
We present time-resolved measurements of ion heating due to collisional plasma shocks and interpenetrating supersonic plasma flows, which are formed by the oblique merging of two coaxial-gun-formed plasma jets. Our study was repeated using four jet species: N, Ar, Kr, and Xe. In conditions with small interpenetration between jets, the observed peak ion temperature Ti is consistent with the predictions of collisional plasma-shock theory, showing a substantial elevation of Ti above the electron temperature Te and also the subsequent decrease of Ti on the classical ion-electron temperature-equili…
The plasma force on grains of specified charge and height in a collisional DC plasma sheath are calculated using the multidimensional particle in cell code COPTIC. The background ion velocity distribution functions for the unperturbed sheath vary substantially with collisionality. The grain force is found to agree quite well with a combination of background electric field force plus ion drag force. However, the drag force must take account of the non-Maxwellian (and spatially varying) ion distribution function, and the collisional drag enhancement. It is shown how to translate the dimensionles…
We present space- and time-resolved experimental data of head-on-merging, supersonic plasma jets (of an argon/impurity mixture) in an initially collisionless regime for counter-streaming ions. The merging begins with collisionless interpenetration followed by a transition to collisional stagnation. The transition occurs due to an experimentally inferred rising mean-ionization level, which rapidly reduces the counter-streaming ion-ion mean free path. The measurements demonstrate a specific mechanism by which a collisionless interaction transitions to a collisional one and constrain collisionali…
The kappa-distributed fully ionized plasma with collisional interaction is investigated. The Fokker-Planck equation with Rosenbluth potential is employed to describe such a physical system. The results show that the kappa distribution is not a stationary distribution unless the parameter kappa tends to infinity. The general expressions of collisional relaxation rate of multiple-component plasma with kappa distribution are derived and discussed in specific cases in details. For the purpose of visual illustration, we also give those results numerically in figures. All the results show that the p…
We present a new theoretical approach for collisional absorption of laser energy in dense plasmas which accommodates arbitrary frequencies and high intensities of the laser field. We establish a connection between laser absorption by inverse Bremstrahlung and the stopping power. This relation is then applied to include strong correlations beyond the mean field approach. The results show an excellent agreement with molecular dynamics simulations up to very high coupling strength.
The problem of collisions in a plasma is a wide subject with a huge historical literature. In fact, the description of realistic plasmas is a tough problem to attach, both from the theoretical and the numerical point of view, and which requires in general to approximate the original collisional Landau integral by simplified differential operators in reduced dimensionality. In this paper, a Eulerian time-splitting algorithm for the study of the propagation of electrostatic waves in collisional plasmas is presented. Collisions are modeled through one-dimensional operators of the Fokker-Planck ty…
The accumulation of impurities in the core of magnetically confined plasmas, resulting from standard collisional transport mechanisms, is a known threat to their performance as fusion energy sources. Whilst the axisymmetric tokamak systems have been shown to benefit from the effect of temperature screening, that is an outward flux of impurities driven by the temperature gradient, impurity accumulation in stellarators was thought to be inevitable, driven robustly by the inward pointing electric field characteristic of hot fusion plasmas. We have shown in Helander et. al. (2017b) that such scree…
Gyrokinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection are presented to investigate plasma heating for strongly magnetized, weakly collisional plasmas. For a low plasma beta case, parallel and perpendicular phase mixing strongly enhance energy dissipation yielding electron heating. Heating occurs for a long time period after a dynamical process of magnetic reconnection ended. For a higher beta case, the ratio of ion to electron dissipation rate increases, suggesting that ion heating (via phase-mixing) may become an important dissipation channel in high beta plasmas.
In a two-ion-species plasma with disparate ion masses, heavy ions tend to concentrate in the low-temperature region of collisionally magnetized plasma and in the high-temperature region of collisionally unmagnetized plasma, respectively. Moreover, collisional magnetization can be determined as the ratio of the light ion gyrofrequency to the collision frequency of light and heavy ion species, and the behavior of this effect in the intermediate regime of partially magnetized plasma is predominantly dependent on this Hall parameter. Multi-ion cross-field transport has been described before in the…
The effect of ionization and recombination processes on the electrical interactions between a pair of small charged particles in highly collisional plasmas is discussed. In particular, it is shown that these processes suppress the long-range attraction between positively charged particles. The condition corresponding to the vanishing of attraction is derived. The role of the effect for conditions of existing experiments is estimated.
Energy losses in a magnetic nozzle radiofrequency plasma thruster are investigated to improve the thruster efficiency, which are calculated from particle energy losses in fully kinetic simulations. The simulations calculate particle energy fluxes with a vector resolution including the plasma energy lost to the dielectric wall, the plasma beam energy, and the divergent plasma energy in addition to collisional energy losses. As a result, distributions of energy losses in the thruster and the ratios of the energy losses to the input power are obtained. The simulation results show that the plasma …
A potential threat to the performance of magnetically confined fusion plasmas is the problem of impurity accumulation, which causes the concentration of highly charged impurity ions to rise uncontrollably in the center of the plasma and spoil the energy confinement by excessive radiation. It has long been thought that the collisional transport of impurities in stellarators always leads to such accumulation (if the electric field points inwards, which is usually the case), whereas tokamaks, being axisymmetric, can benefit from "temperature screening", i.e., an outward flux of impurities driven …
A method is developed to analytically determine the resonance broadening function in quasilinear theory, due to either Krook or Fokker-Planck scattering collisions of marginally unstable plasma systems where discrete resonance instabilities are excited without any mode overlap. It is demonstrated that a quasilinear system that employs the calculated broadening functions reported here systematically recovers the nonlinear growth rate and mode saturation levels for near-threshold plasmas previously calculated from kinetic theory. The distribution function is also calculated, which enables precis…
We investigate the low-frequency wave mode associated with heavy particles and its instability in a collisional complex plasma with drifting ions. The effect of the ion drift on the sound velocity of this mode is discussed. The general condition of the instability is derived for subthermal ion drifts, taking into account strong coupling of the particle component. As a general tendency, strong coupling effects reduce the sound velocity and facilitate the occurrence of the ion drift instability. A wide parameter range is considered from the weakly collisional to strongly collisional regimes for …
For plasma velocity space instabilities driven by particle distributions significantly deviated from a Maxwellian, weak collisions can damp the instabilities by an amount that is significantly beyond the collisional rate itself. This is attributed to the dual role of collisions that tend to relax the plasma distribution toward a Maxwellian and to suppress the linearly perturbed distribution function. The former effect can dominate in cases where the unstable non-Maxwellian distribution is driven by collisionless transport on a time scale much shorter than that of collisions, and the growth rat…
We present experimental data providing evidence for the formation of transient ($\sim 20~μ$s) plasmas that are simultaneously weakly magnetized (i.e., Hall magnetization parameter $ωτ> 1$) and dominated by thermal pressure (i.e., ratio of thermal-to-magnetic pressure $β> 1$). Particle collisional mean free paths are an appreciable fraction of the overall system size. These plasmas are formed via the head-on merging of two plasmas launched by magnetized coaxial guns. The ratio $λ_{gun}=μ_0 I_{gun}/ψ_{gun}$ of gun current $I_{gun}$ to applied magnetic flux $ψ_{gun}$ is an experimental knob for e…
We present results from experiments on the head-on merging of two supersonic plasma jets in an initially collisionless regime for the counter-streaming ions. The plasma jets are of either an argon/impurity or hydrogen/impurity mixture and are produced by pulsed-power-driven railguns. Based on time- and space-resolved fast-imaging, multi-chord interferometry, and survey-spectroscopy measurements of the overlapping region between the merging jets, we observe that the jets initially interpenetrate, consistent with calculated inter-jet ion collision lengths, which are long. As the jets interpenetr…
Formulas for transverse conductance and dielectric permeability in quantum degenerate collisional plasma with arbitrary variable collision frequency in Mermin's approach are deduced. Frequency of collisions of particles depends arbitrarily on a wave vector. For this purpose the kinetic Shrödinger - Boltzmann equation with collision integral of relaxation type in momentum space is applied. The case of degenerate Fermi plasma is allocated and investigated. The special case of frequency of collisions proportional to the module of a wave vector is considered. The graphic analysis of the real and i…
The distinction between the plasma dynamics dominated by collisional transport versus collective processes has never been rigorously addressed until recently. A recent paper [Yoon et al., Phys. Rev. E 93, 033203 (2016)] formulates for the first time, a unified kinetic theory in which collective processes and collisional dynamics are systematically incorporated from first principles. One of the outcomes of such a formalism is the rigorous derivation of collisional damping rates for Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves, which can be contrasted to the heuristic customary approach. However, the results…
Kinetic Vlasov equation for collisional Maxwellian plasmas is used. Collision integral of BGK (Bhatnagar, Gross and Krook) type is applied. From Vlasov equation we find distribution function of electrons in square-law approximation on size of transversal electric field. The formula for electric current calculation is deduced. This formula contains an one-dimensional quadrature. It is shown, that nonlinearity leads to revealing of the longitudinal electric current directed along a wave vector. This longitudinal current is perpendicular to known so-called transversal classical current. The class…
The ion-drag force on a spherical dust particle immersed in a flowing plasma with external electric field is self-consistently calculated using the Particle In Cell code SCEPTIC in the entire range of charge-exchange collisionality. Our results, not based on questionable approximations, extend prior analytic calculations valid only in a few limiting regimes. Particular attention is given to the force direction, shown never to be directed opposite to the flow except in the continuum limit, where other forces are of much stronger magnitude.
Magnetized plasma interactions are ubiquitous in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Various physical effects have been shown to be important within colliding plasma flows influenced by opposing magnetic fields, however, experimental verification of the mechanisms within the interaction region has remained elusive. Here we discuss a laser-plasma experiment whereby experimental results verify that Biermann battery generated magnetic fields are advected by Nernst flows and anisotropic pressure effects dominate these flows in a reconnection region. These fields are mapped using time-resolved pr…
Starting from the Braginskii equations, relevant for the tokamak edge region, a complete set of nonlinear equations for the geodesic acoustic modes (GAM) has been derived which includes collisionality, plasma beta and external sources of particle, momentum and heat. Local linear analysis shows that the GAM frequency increases with collisionality at low radial wave number $k_{r}$ and decreases at high $k_{r}$. GAM frequency also decreases with plasma beta. Radial profiles of GAM frequency for two Tore Supra shots, which were part of a collisionality scan, are compared with these calculations. D…
Formulas for transverse conductance and dielectric permeability in quantum non-degenerate and Maxwellian collisional plasma with arbitrary variable collision frequency in Mermin's approach are deduced. Frequency of collisions of particles depends arbitrarily on a wave vector. The special case of frequency of collisions proportional to the module of a wave vector is considered. The graphic analysis of the real and imaginary parts of dielectric function is made.
The friction in plasmas consisting of two species with different temperatures is discussed together with the consequent energy transfer. It is shown that the friction between the two species has no effect on the ion acoustic mode in a quasi-neutral plasma. Using the Poisson equation instead of the quasi-neutrality reveals the possibility for an instability driven by the collisional energy transfer. However, the different starting temperatures of the two species imply an evolving equilibrium. It is shown that the relaxation time of the equilibrium electron-ion plasma is, in fact, always shorter…
Quantum and collisional effects on the unstable spectrum of a relativistic electron beam-plasma system are investigated through a two-fluids model. Application is made to the near target center interaction of the relativistic electron beam in the Fast Ignition Scenario. Partial degeneracy effects are found negligible while the most influential factors are the beam temperature and the electron-ion collision frequency of the plasma. The introduction of the latter triggers some oblique unstable modes of much larger wave length than the collisionless ones. Transition from the collisionless regime …
Wave-Energy Partition Governs Weak Collisional Damping in Cold Plasmas
School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学核科学技术学院）；Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室理论部）
A collisional magnetized plasma consisting of two temperature electrons has been investigated numerically to study the sheath structure and the ion energy flux to the wall. The low-temperature electrons are described by Maxwellian distribution, and the high-temperature electrons are described by truncated Maxwellian distribution. It has been observed that high-temperature electrons play a major role in the sheath potential as well as the ion energy flux to the wall. The presence of collision in the sheath has a significant effect on the properties of the sheath. The study of such a system can …
This paper develops a unified linear theory of local cross-field plasma instabilities, such as the Farley-Buneman, electron thermal, and ion thermal instabilities, in collisional plasmas with fully or partially unmagnetized multi-species ions. Collisional lasma instabilities in low-ionized, highly dissipative, weakly magnetized plasmas play an important role in the lower Earth's ionosphere and may be of importance in other planet ionospheres, star atmospheres, cometary tails, molecular clouds, accretion disks, etc. In the solar chromosphere, macroscopic effects of collisional plasma instabilit…
The low-frequency instability of a cylindrical poorly magnetized plasma with an inward-directed radial electric field is studied changing the gas pressure and the ion cyclotron frequency. The unstable frequency always decreases when the gas pressure is increased indicating collisional effects. At a fixed pressure, the unstable frequency increases with the magnetic field when the B-field is low and decreases at larger magnetic field strength. We find that the transition between these two regimes is obtained when the ion cyclotron frequency equals the ion-neutrals collision frequency. This is in…
Weakly collisional Ar-O2 electronegative plasmas are investigated in a dc multidipole chamber. An electronegative core and an electropositive halo are observed. The density ratio of negative ions to electrons (α) in the nondrifting bulk is found to be 0.43. The profile of α is found using both the phase velocity of ion acoustic waves and the drift velocity of positive ions determined by laser induced fluorescence. The experiment shows that negative ions are in Boltzmann equilibrium with a temperature of 0.06 \pm 0.02 eV. Double layers are not found separating the electronegative core and the e…
A perpendicular ion drift is investigated as a mechanism for the generation of magnetic field structures in a highly collisional dusty plasma. The basic dissipation mechanism is assumed to be the dust-neutrals momentum exchange, so that plasmas with a small ionization fraction are natural candidates for experiments. The model reduces to a nonlinear partial differential equation for the vector potential. The conditions for linear instability are determined. The stationary states are periodic arrangements for the magnetic field, described by a Lienard equation. The fully depleted (ion-dust) case…
Kinetic Vlasov equation for collisional plasmas with BGK (Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook) collision integral is used. The case of arbitrary temperature (i.e. arbitrary degree of degeneration of electronic gas) is considered. From kinetic Vlasov equation the distribution function in square-law approximation on size of transversal electromagnetic field is received. The formula for calculation electric current is deduced. This formula contains one-dimension quadrature. It is shown, that the nonlinearity account leads to occurrence the longitudinal electric current directed along the wave vector. This long…
Instabilities of ion-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma with electron-drift, collisional, and dust charge fluctuations effects, have been investigated. The regimes are clearly marked out where the theory is applicable. The critical electron-drift velocity required to drive the instability is predicted. It is also shown that electron thermal conductivity and charged grains concentration enhance the growth of the ion-acoustic mode whereas ion-viscosity, ion-thermal conductivity, and dust charge fluctuations have a stabilizing effect.
A multi-species magnetized collisional nonthermal plasma system containing inertial ion species, non-inertial electron species following nonthermal $κ-$ distribution, and immobile dust particles, is considered to examine the characteristics of the dissipative dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) soliton modes, \textbf{theoretically and parametrically}. The electrostatic solitary modes are found to be associated with the low frequency dissipative dust-ion-acoustic solitary waves (DIASWs). The ion-neutral collision is taken into account, and the influence of ion-neutral collisional effects on the dynamics of…
New analytical expressions for parallel transport coefficients in multicomponent collisional plasmas are presented in this paper. They are improved versions of the expressions written in [V. M. Zhdanov. Transport Processes in Multicomponent Plasma, vol. 44. 10 2002.], based on Grad's 21N-moment method. Both explicit and approximate approaches for transport coefficients calculation are considered. Accurate application of this closure for the Braginskii transport equations is discussed. Viscosity dependence on the heat flux is taken into account. Improved expressions are implemented into the SOL…
Stratification due to ion-ion friction in a magnetized multiple-ion species plasma is shown to be accompanied by a heat pump effect, identified for the first time here, transferring heat from one ion species to another as well as from one region of space to another. The heat pump is produced via newly identified heating mechanisms associated with charge incompressibility and the Ettingshausen effect. Besides their academic interest, these new effects may have useful applications to plasma technologies that involve rotation or compression.
Magnetic reconnection and associated heating of ions and electrons in strongly magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas are studied by means of gyrokinetic simulations. It is shown that an appreciable amount of the released magnetic energy is dissipated to yield (irreversible) electron and ion heating via phase mixing. Electron heating is mostly localized to the magnetic island, not the current sheet, and occurs after the dynamical reconnection stage. Ion heating is comparable to electron heating only in high-beta plasmas, and results from both parallel phase mixing and perpendicular phase mixin…
From kinetic Vlasov equation for collisional plasmas distribution function in square-law approximation on sizes of intensivities of electric fields is received. The known integral of collisions of relaxation type, so-called BGK (Bhatnagar, Gross, Krook) integral of collisions is considered. The formula for calculation electric current at any temperature (any degree of degeneration of electronic gas) is deduced. This formula contains an one-dimensional quadrature. It is shown, that the nonlinearity account leads to occurrence the longitudinal electric current directed along a wave vector. This …
In modern inertial fusion experiments there is a complex interplay between non-locality and magnetisation that can greatly influence transport. In this work we use a matrix recursion method to include higher-order corrections beyond the diffusion approximation usually used for magnetised plasmas. Working in the linear regime, we show this can account for arbitrary orders of the distribution function expansion in Knudsen non-locality parameter $kλ_{ei}$. Transport coefficients, such as thermal conductivity, deviate significantly from the magnetised diffusive approximation. In particular we show…
Formulas for transversal conductance and dielectric permeability (dielectric function) in quantum Maxwell collisional plasma are deduced. The kinetic equation with collision integral in the form relaxation type is used.
The analysis of experimental investigations of equilibrium, interaction and dynamics of vortex structures in pure electron and gas-discharge electron nonneutral plasmas during the time much more than the electron-neutral collision time has been carried out. The problem of long confinement of the column of pure electron plasma in Penning-Malmberg trap is considered. The mechanism of stability of long-lived vortex structure in gas-discharge nonneutral electron plasma is investigated. The collapse of electron sheath in gas-discharge nonneutral electron plasma in Penning cell at high pressures of …
The dispersion properties of low frequency dust acoustic waves in the strong coupling regime are investigated experimentally in an argon plasma embedded with a mixture of kaolin and $MnO_2$ dust particles. The neutral pressure is varied over a wide range to change the collisional properties of the dusty plasma. In the low collisional regime the turnover of the dispersion curve at higher wave numbers and the resultant region of $\partialω/\partial k < 0$ are identified as signatures of dust-dust correlations. In the high collisional regime dust neutral collisions produce a similar effect and pr…
We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density $\sim 10^{14}$ cm$^{-3}$, electron temperature $\approx 1.4$ eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity $\approx 40$ km/s just prior to merging. The jet merging produces a few-cm-thick stagnation layer, as observed in both fast-framing camera images and multi-chord interferometer data, consistent with collisional shock formation [E. C. Merritt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\b…
We study the effects of ion-dust collisions and ion kinematic viscosities on the linear ion-acoustic instability as well as the nonlinear propagation of small amplitude solitary waves and shocks (SWS) in a negative ion plasma with immobile charged dusts. {The existence of two linear ion modes, namely the `fast' and `slow' waves is shown, and their properties are analyzed in the collisional negative ion plasma.} {Using the standard reductive perturbation technique, we derive a modified Korteweg-de Vries-Burger (KdVB) equation which describes the evolution of small amplitude SWS.} {The profiles …
The dynamics of electron-plasma waves are described at arbitrary collisionality by considering the full Coulomb collision operator. The description is based on a Hermite-Laguerre decomposition of the velocity dependence of the electron distribution function. The damping rate, frequency, and eigenmode spectrum of electron-plasma waves are found as functions of the collision frequency and wavelength. A comparison is made between the collisionless Landau damping limit, the Lenard-Bernstein and Dougherty collision operators, and the electron-ion collision operator, finding large deviations in the …
We present a study of perpendicular subcritical shocks in a collisional laboratory plasma. Shocks are produced by placing obstacles into the super-magnetosonic outflow from an inverse wire array z-pinch. We demonstrate the existence of subcritical shocks in this regime and find that secondary shocks form in the downstream. Detailed measurements of the subcritical shock structure confirm the absence of a hydrodynamic jump. We calculate the classical (Spitzer) resistive diffusion length and show that it is approximately equal to the shock width. We measure little heating across the shock (< 10 %…
