Evolution Of Nonlinear Waves in Compressing Plasma

Technical Report · Fri May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1025014· OSTI ID:1025014

P.F. Schmit, I.Y. Dodin, and N.J. Fisch

Through particle-in-cell simulations, the evolution of nonlinear plasma waves is examined in one-dimensional collisionless plasma undergoing mechanical compression. Unlike linear waves, whose wavelength decreases proportionally to the system length L(t), nonlinear waves, such as solitary electron holes, conserve their characteristic size {Delta} during slow compression. This leads to a substantially stronger adiabatic amplification as well as rapid collisionless damping when L approaches {Delta}. On the other hand, cessation of compression halts the wave evolution, yielding a stable mode.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-ACO2-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 1025014
• Report Number(s): PPPL-4628; TRN: US1104848
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AMPLIFICATION
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
COMPRESSION
DAMPING
HOLES
PLASMA
PLASMA WAVES
WAVELENGTHS
Compression
Numerical Simulation
Nonlinear Effects