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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,135 records · Page 63
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Nonlinear stability of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic interchange mode at marginal conditions in a transverse magnetic field

The stability of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) interchange mode at marginal conditions is studied. A sufficiently strong constant magnetic field component transverse to the direction of mode symmetry provides the marginality conditions. A systematic perturbation analysis in the smallness parameter, |b{sub 2}/B{sub c}|{sup 1/2}, is carried out, where B{sub c} is the critical transverse magnetic field for the zero-frequency ideal mode and b{sub 2} is the deviation from B{sub c}. The calculation is carried out to third order including nonlinear terms. It is shown that the system is nonlinearly unstable in the short wavelength limit, i.e., a large enough perturbation results in instability even if b{sub 2}/B{sub c} > 0 (linearly stable). The normalized amplitude for instability is shown to scale as |b{sub 2}/B{sub c}|{sup 1/2}. A nonlinear, compressible, MHD simulation is done to check the analytic result. Good agreement is found, including the critical amplitude scaling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Nonlinear kinetic modeling of stimulated Raman scattering in a multidimensional geometry

In this paper, we derive coupled envelope equations modeling the growth of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in a multi-dimensional geometry and accounting for nonlinear kinetic effects. In particular, our envelope equations allow for the nonlinear reduction of the Landau damping rate, whose decrease with the plasma wave amplitude depends on the rate of side-loss. Account is also made of the variations in the extent of the plasma wave packet entailed by the collisionless dissipation due to trapping. The dephasing between the electron plasma wave (EPW) and the laser drive, as well as the self-focussing of the plasma wave, both induced by the EPW nonlinear frequency shift, are also included in our envelope equations. These equations are solved in a multi-dimensional geometry using our code dubbed BRAMA, whose predictions regarding the evolution of Raman reflectivity as a function of the laser intensity are compared against previously published particle in cell results, thus illustrating the ability of BRAMA simulations to provide the correct laser threshold intensity for SRS as well as the right order of magnitude of Raman reflectivity above threshold.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Nonlinear dust acoustic waves and shocks

We describe experiments on (1) nonlinear dust acoustic waves and (2) dust acoustic shocks performed in a direct current (DC) glow discharge dusty plasma. First, we describe experiments showing nonlinear dust acoustic waves characterized by waveforms of the dust density that are typically sharper in the wave crests and flatter in the wave troughs (compared to sinusoidal waves), indicating the development of wave harmonics. We discuss this behavior in terms of a second-order fluid theory for dust acoustic waves. Second, experimental observations of the propagation and steepening of large-amplitude dust acoustic waves into dust acoustic shock waves are presented. The observed shock wave evolution is compared with numerical calculations based on the Riemann solution of the fully nonlinear fluid equations for dust acoustic waves.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Effect of nonlinear absorption on self focusing of short laser pulse in a plasma

Paraxial theory of self focusing of short pulse laser in a plasma under transient and saturating effects of nonlinearity and nonlinear absorption is developed. The absorption is averaged over the cross-section of the beam and is different for different time segments of the pulse. The electron temperature includes cumulative effect of previous history of temporal profile of pulse intensity, however, the ambipolar diffusion is taken to be faster than the heating time. The relaxation effect causes self-distortion of the pulse temporal profile where as the nonlinear absorption weakens self focusing. For the pulses of duration comparable to the electron ion collision time, the front part of the pulse gets defocused where as the latter part undergoes periodic self focusing.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Exact nonlinear excitations in double-degenerate plasmas

In this work, we use the conventional hydrodynamics formalism and incorporate the Chew-Goldberger-Low double-adiabatic theory to evaluate the nonlinear electrostatic ion excitations in double-degenerate (electron spin-orbit degenerate) magnetized quantum plasmas. Based on the Sagdeev pseudopotential method, an exact general pseudopotential is calculated which leads to the allowed Mach-number range criteria for such localized density structures in an anisotropic magnetized plasma. We employ the criteria on the Mach-number range for diverse magnetized quantum plasma with different equations of state. It is remarked that various plasma fractional parameters such as the system dimensionality, ion-temperature, relativistic-degeneracy, Zeeman-energy, and plasma composition are involved in the stability of an obliquely propagating nonlinear ion-acoustic wave in a double-degenerate quantum plasma. Current study is most appropriate for nonlinear wave analysis in dense astrophysical magnetized plasma environments such as white-dwarfs and neutron-star crusts where the strong magnetic fields can be present.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Nonlinear propagation of coherent electromagnetic waves in a dense magnetized plasma

We present an investigation of the nonlinear propagation of high-frequency coherent electromagnetic waves in a uniform quantum magnetoplasma. Specifically, we consider nonlinear couplings of right-hand circularly polarized electromagnetic-electron-cyclotron (CPEM-EC) waves with dispersive shear Alfven (DSA) and dispersive compressional Alfven (DCA) perturbations in plasmas composed of degenerate electron fluids and non-degenerate ion fluids. Such interactions lead to amplitude modulation of the CPEM-EC wave packets, the dynamics of which is governed by a three-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation (NLSE) with the frequency shift arising from the relativistic electron mass increase in the CPEM-EC fields and density perturbations associated with the DSA and DCA perturbations. Accounting for the electromagnetic and quantum forces, we derive the evolution equation for the DSA and DCA waves in the presence of the magnetic field-aligned ponderomotive force of the CPEM-EC waves. The NLSE and the driven DSA and DCA equations are then used to investigate the modulational instability. The relevance of our investigation to laser-plasma interaction experiments and the cores of white dwarf stars is pointed out.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Thermodynamic bounds on nonlinear electrostatic perturbations in intense charged particle beams

This paper places a lowest upper bound on the field energy in electrostatic perturbations in single-species charged particle beams with initial temperature anisotropy (T{sub Parallel-To }/T{sub Up-Tack }<1). The result applies to all electrostatic perturbations driven by the natural anisotropies that develop in accelerated particle beams, including Harris-type electrostatic instabilities, known to limit the luminosity and minimum spot size attainable in experiments. The thermodynamic bound on the field perturbation energy of the instabilities is obtained from the nonlinear Vlasov-Poisson equations for an arbitrary initial distribution function, including the effects of intense self-fields, finite geometry, and nonlinear processes. This paper also includes analytical estimates of the nonlinear bounds for space-charge-dominated and emittance-dominated anisotropic bi-Maxwellian distributions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Designs for highly nonlinear ablative Rayleigh-Taylor experiments on the National Ignition Facility

We present two designs relevant to ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability in transition from weakly nonlinear to highly nonlinear regimes at the National Ignition Facility [E. I. Moses, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 112, 012003 (2008)]. The sensitivity of nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability physics to ablation velocity is addressed with targets driven by indirect drive, with stronger ablative stabilization, and by direct drive, with weaker ablative stabilization. The indirect drive design demonstrates the potential to reach a two-dimensional bubble-merger regime with a 20 ns duration drive at moderate radiation temperature. The direct drive design achieves a 3 to 5 times increased acceleration distance for the sample in comparison to previous experiments allowing at least 2 more bubble generations when starting from a three-dimensional broadband spectrum.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Nonlinear acoustic/seismic waves in earthquake processes

Nonlinear dynamics induced by seismic sources and seismic waves are common in Earth. Observations range from seismic strong ground motion (the most damaging aspect of earthquakes), intense near-source effects, and distant nonlinear effects from the source that have important consequences. The distant effects include dynamic earthquake triggering-one of the most fascinating topics in seismology today-which may be elastically nonlinearly driven. Dynamic earthquake triggering is the phenomenon whereby seismic waves generated from one earthquake trigger slip events on a nearby or distant fault. Dynamic triggering may take place at distances thousands of kilometers from the triggering earthquake, and includes triggering of the entire spectrum of slip behaviors currently identified. These include triggered earthquakes and triggered slow, silent-slip during which little seismic energy is radiated. It appears that the elasticity of the fault gouge-the granular material located between the fault blocks-is key to the triggering phenomenon.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Improvement of nonlinear harmonics in free electron laser with planar wiggler

Spontaneous emission of free electron laser with planar wiggler and ion-channel guiding is calculated analytically and possibility of emission at up-shifted wiggler or ion-channel betatron frequency and their harmonics has been found. To investigate the nonlinear odd harmonics, a set of self-consistent nonlinear differential equations that governs the evolution of radiation and electron beam are derived and solved numerically by Runge-Kutta method. Using the simulation code, gain improvement of third harmonic is studied in the range of microwave frequency by applying ion-channel guiding for a cold beam. It is shown that the combination of the ion-channel and a prebunched electron beam increases the amplitude of the third harmonic of the radiation and decreases its saturation length. The relation between the linear and nonlinear harmonics is discussed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear Raman forward scattering of a short laser pulse in a collisional transversely magnetized plasma

Nonlinear Raman forward scattering (NRFS) of an intense short laser pulse with a duration shorter than the plasma period through a homogenous collisional transversely magnetized plasma is investigated theoretically when ponderomotive, relativistic and collioninal nonlinearities are taken into account. The plasma is embedded in a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to both, the direction of propagation and electric vector of the radiation field. Nonlinear wave equation is set up and Fourier transformation method is used to solve the coupled equations describing NRFS instability. Finally, the growth rate of this instability is obtained. Thermal effects of plasma electrons and effect of the electron-ion collisions are examined. It is found that the growth rate of Raman forward scattering first decreases on increasing electron thermal velocity, minimizes at an optimum value, and then increases. Our results also show that the growth rate increases by increasing the electron-ion collisions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Small amplitude nonlinear electron acoustic solitary waves in weakly magnetized plasma

Nonlinear propagation of electron acoustic waves in homogeneous, dispersive plasma medium with two temperature electron species is studied in presence of externally applied magnetic field. The linear dispersion relation is found to be modified by the externally applied magnetic field. Lagrangian transformation technique is applied to carry out nonlinear analysis. For small amplitude limit, a modified KdV equation is obtained, the modification arising due to presence of magnetic field. For weakly magnetized plasma, the modified KdV equation possesses stable solitary solutions with speed and amplitude increasing temporally. The solutions are valid upto some finite time period beyond which the nonlinear wave tends to wave breaking.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Study of nonlinear oscillations in a glow discharge plasma using empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert Huang transform

Hilbert Huang transform (HHT) based time series analysis was carried out on nonlinear floating potential fluctuations obtained from hollow cathode glow discharge plasma in the presence of anode glow. HHT was used to obtain contour plots and the presence of nonlinearity was studied. Frequency shift with time, which is a typical nonlinear behaviour, was detected from the contour plots. Various plasma parameters were measured and the concepts of correlation coefficients and the physical contribution of each intrinsic mode function have been discussed. Physically important quantities such as instantaneous energy and their uses in studying physical phenomena such as intermittency and non-stationary data have also been discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Boundary induced amplification and nonlinear instability of interchange modes

It is shown that small distortions on the boundaries are amplified in the core of a magnetized plasma if the system is close to marginal stability for the ideal magnetohydrodynamic interchange mode. It is also shown that such marginal systems can be nonlinearly unstable. The combination of boundary amplification and nonlinearity is shown to result in a nonlinear instability. The induced instability is highly sensitive to the boundary in that, if the fractional deviation from marginality is a small parameter b, the system can go unstable from fractional boundary distortions of O(b{sup 3/2}).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear interaction of kinetic Alfven wave with fast magnetosonic wave and turbulent spectrum

In the present paper, authors have investigated nonlinear interaction of kinetic Alfven wave (KAW) and fast magnetosonic wave for intermediate {beta}-plasma (m{sub e}/m{sub i} Much-Less-Than {beta} Much-Less-Than 1). Authors have developed the set of dimensionless equations in the presence of ponderomotive nonlinearity due to KAW in the dynamics of fast magnetosonic wave. Numerical simulation has been carried out to study the effect of nonlinear coupling and resulting turbulent/power spectrum for the different angles of propagation of fast magnetosonic wave applicable to solar wind at 1 AU. The localization of KAW has been found which becomes more complex as the angle of propagation of fast magnetosonic wave decreases. Results also reveal the steepening of power spectrum as the angle of propagation decreases which can be responsible for heating and acceleration of plasma particles in solar wind. Relevance of the obtained result is pointed out with observation received by Cluster spacecraft for the solar wind 1 AU.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

About simple nonlinear and linear superpositions of special exact solutions of Veselov-Novikov equation

New exact solutions, nonstationary and stationary, of Veselov-Novikov (VN) equation in the forms of simple nonlinear and linear superpositions of arbitrary number N of exact special solutions u{sup (n)}, n= 1, Horizontal-Ellipsis , N are constructed via Zakharov and Manakov {partial_derivative}-dressing method. Simple nonlinear superpositions are represented up to a constant by the sums of solutions u{sup (n)} and calculated by {partial_derivative}-dressing on nonzero energy level of the first auxiliary linear problem, i.e., 2D stationary Schroedinger equation. It is remarkable that in the zero energy limit simple nonlinear superpositions convert to linear ones in the form of the sums of special solutions u{sup (n)}. It is shown that the sums u=u{sup (k{sub 1})}+...+u{sup (k{sub m})}, 1 Less-Than-Or-Slanted-Equal-To k{sub 1} < k{sub 2} < Horizontal-Ellipsis < k{sub m} Less-Than-Or-Slanted-Equal-To N of arbitrary subsets of these solutions are also exact solutions of VN equation. The presented exact solutions include as superpositions of special line solitons and also superpositions of plane wave type singular periodic solutions. By construction these exact solutions represent also new exact transparent potentials of 2D stationary Schroedinger equation and can serve as model potentials for electrons in planar structures of modern electronics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear electron acoustic cyclotron waves in presence of uniform magnetic field

Nonlinear electron acoustic cyclotron waves (EACW) are studied in a quasineutral plasma in presence of uniform magnetic field. The fluid model is used to describe the dynamics of two temperature electron species in a stationary charge neutral inhomogeneous background. In long wavelength limit, it is shown that the linear electron acoustic wave is modified by the uniform magnetic field similar to that of electrostatic ion cyclotron wave. Nonlinear equations for these waves are solved by using Lagrangian variables. Results show that the spatial solitary wave-like structures are formed due to nonlinearities and dispersions. These structures transiently grow to larger amplitude unless dispersive effect is actively operative and able to arrest this growth. We have found that the wave dispersion originated from the equilibrium inhomogeneity through collective effect and is responsible for spatiotemporal structures. Weak dispersion is not able to stop the wave collapse and singular structures of EACW are formed. Relevance of the results in the context of laboratory and space plasmas is discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Higher order nonlinear equations for the dust-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma with two temperature-ions and nonextensive electrons

The nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma whose constituents are negatively charged dust, Maxwellian ions with two distinct temperatures, and electrons following q-nonextensive distribution, is investigated by deriving a number of nonlinear equations, namely, the Korteweg-de-Vries (K-dV), the modified Korteweg-de-Vries (mK-dV), and the Gardner equations. The basic characteristics of the hump (positive potential) and dip (negative potential) shaped dust-acoustic (DA) Gardner solitons are found to exist beyond the K-dV limit. The effects of two temperature ions and electron nonextensivity on the basic features of DA K-dV, mK-dV, and Gardner solitons are also examined. It has been observed that the DA Gardner solitons exhibit negative (positive) solitons for q q{sub c}) (where q{sub c} is the critical value of the nonextensive parameter q). The implications of our results in understanding the localized nonlinear electrostatic perturbations existing in stellar polytropes, quark-gluon plasma, protoneutron stars, etc. (where ions with different temperatures and nonextensive electrons exist) are also briefly addressed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗