Engineering topics

Perrone, D

Publications and source records attributed to Perrone, D.

4 records

DOE OSTI2012

Undamped electrostatic plasma waves

Electrostatic waves in a collision-free unmagnetized plasma of electrons with fixed ions are investigated for electron equilibrium velocity distribution functions that deviate slightly from Maxwellian. Of interest are undamped waves that are the small amplitude limit of nonlinear excitations, such as electron acoustic waves (EAWs). A deviation consisting of a small plateau, a region with zero velocity derivative over a width that is a very small fraction of the electron thermal speed, is shown to give rise to new undamped modes, which here are named corner modes. The presence of the plateau turns off Landau damping and allows oscillations with phase speeds within the plateau. These undamped waves are obtained in a wide region of the (k,{omega}{sub R}) plane ({omega}{sub R} being the real part of the wave frequency and k the wavenumber), away from the well-known 'thumb curve' for Langmuir waves and EAWs based on the Maxwellian. Results of nonlinear Vlasov-Poisson simulations that corroborate the existence of these modes are described. It is also shown that deviations caused by fattening the tail of the distribution shift roots off of the thumb curve toward lower k-values and chopping the tail shifts them toward higher k-values. In addition, a rule of thumb is obtained for assessing how the existence of a plateau shifts roots off of the thumb curve. Suggestions are made for interpreting experimental observations of electrostatic waves, such as recent ones in nonneutral plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

THE ROLE OF ALPHA PARTICLES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR-WIND TURBULENCE TOWARD SHORT SPATIAL SCALES

We present a numerical study of the kinetic dynamics of protons and alpha particles during the evolution of the solar-wind turbulent cascade, in which the energy injected in large-scale slab-type Alfvenic fluctuations is transferred toward short spatial scale lengths, across the proton skin depth. We make use of a hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell code that integrates numerically the Vlasov equation for both the ion species, while the electrons are considered as a fluid. The system evolution is investigated in terms of different values of the electron to proton and alpha particle to proton temperature ratios. The numerical results show that the previously studied kinetic dynamics of protons is not strongly affected by the presence of alpha particles, at least when they are present in low concentration. Our simulations not only provide a physical explanation for the generation of beams of accelerated particles along the direction of the ambient magnetic field for both protons and alpha particles, but also show that this mechanism is more efficient for protons than for alpha particles, in agreement with recent solar-wind data analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

SHORT-WAVELENGTH ELECTROSTATIC FLUCTUATIONS IN THE SOLAR WIND

Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations have been used recently to investigate the dynamics of the solar-wind plasma in the tail at short wavelengths of the energy cascade. These simulations have shown that a significant level of electrostatic activity is detected at wavelengths smaller than the proton inertial scale in the longitudinal direction with respect to the ambient magnetic field. In this paper, we describe the results of a new series of hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell simulations that allow us to investigate in more detail the generation process of these electrostatic fluctuations in terms of the electron-to-proton temperature ratio T{sub e} /T{sub p} . This analysis gives evidence for the first time that even in the case of cold electrons, T{sub e} {approx_equal} T{sub p} (the appropriate condition for solar-wind plasmas), the resonant interaction of protons with large-scale left-hand polarized ion-cyclotron waves is responsible for the excitation of short-scale electrostatic fluctuations with an acoustic dispersion relation. Moreover, through our numerical results we propose a physical mechanism to explain the generation of longitudinal proton-beam distributions in typical conditions of the solar-wind environment.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

A SHELL MODEL TURBULENT DYNAMO

Turbulent dynamo phenomena, observed almost everywhere in astrophysical objects and also in the laboratory in the recent VKS2 experiment, are investigated using a shell model technique to describe magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Detailed numerical simulations at very high Rossby numbers ({alpha}{sup 2} dynamo) show that as the magnetic Reynolds number increases, the dynamo action starts working and different regimes are observed. The model, which displays different large-scale coherent behaviors corresponding to different regimes, is able to reproduce the magnetic field reversals observed both in a geomagnetic dynamo and in the VKS2 experiment. While rough quantitative estimates of typical times associated with the reversal phenomenon are consistent with paleomagnetic data, the analysis of the transition from oscillating intermittent through reversal and finally to stationary behavior shows that the nature of the reversals we observe is typical of {alpha}{sup 2} dynamos and completely different from VKS2 reversals. Finally, the model shows that coherent behaviors can also be naturally generated inside the many-mode dynamical chaotic model, which reproduces the complexity of fluid turbulence, as described by the shell technique.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗