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Title: Plasma electron hole kinematics. II. Hole tracking Particle-In-Cell simulation

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4959871· OSTI ID:1467859
 [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Plasma Science and Fusion Center

Here, the kinematics of a 1-D electron hole is studied using a novel Particle-In-Cell simulation code. A hole tracking technique enables us to follow the trajectory of a fast-moving solitary hole and study quantitatively hole acceleration and coupling to ions. We observe a transient at the initial stage of hole formation when the hole accelerates to several times the cold-ion sound speed. Artificially imposing slow ion speed changes on a fully formed hole causes its velocity to change even when the ion stream speed in the hole frame greatly exceeds the ion thermal speed, so there are no reflected ions. The behavior that we observe in numerical simulations agrees very well with our analytic theory of hole momentum conservation and the effects of “jetting.”

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0010491
OSTI ID:
1467859
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1280201
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 8; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Electron holes in phase space: What they are and why they matter journal May 2017
Evolution of electron phase space holes in inhomogeneous plasmas journal June 2017
A study of the stability properties of Sagdeev solutions in the ion-acoustic regime using kinetic simulations journal July 2018
Ultra slow electron holes in collisionless plasmas: Stability at high ion temperature journal February 2020
A study of the stability properties of Sagdeev solutions in the ion-acoustic regime using kinetic simulations preprint January 2018
Ultra slow electron holes in collisionless plasmas: stability at high ion temperature text January 2019