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Protecting backaction-evading measurements from parametric instability
Noiseless measurement of a single quadrature in systems of parametrically coupled oscillators is theoretically possible by pumping at the sum and difference frequencies of the two oscillators, realizing a backaction-evading (BAE) scheme. Although this would hold true in the simplest scenario for a system with pure three-wave mixing, implementations of this scheme are hindered by unwanted higher-order parametric processes that destabilize the system and add noise. We show analytically that detuning the two pumps from the sum and difference frequencies can stabilize the system and fully recover the BAE performance, enabling operation at otherwise inaccessible cooperativities. We also show that the acceleration demonstrated in a weak-signal-detection experiment [Jiang , PRX Quantum 4, 020302 (2023)] was only achievable because of this detuning technique.
Parametric Instability Driven by Weakly Trapped Particles in Nonlinear Plasma Waves
Not Available
Ion dynamics during the parametric instabilities of a left-hand polarized Alfvén wave in a proton-electron-alpha plasma
The parametric instabilities of an Alfvén wave in a proton-electron plasma system are found to have great influence on proton dynamics, where part of the protons can be accelerated through the Landau resonance with the excited ion acoustic waves, and a beam component along the background magnetic field is formed. In this paper, with a one-dimensional hybrid simulation model, we investigate the evolution of the parametric instabilities of a monochromatic left-hand polarized Alfvén wave in a proton-electron-alpha plasma with a low beta. When the drift velocity between the protons and alpha particles is sufficiently large, the wave numbers of the backward daughter Alfvén waves can be cascaded toward higher values due to the modulational instability during the nonlinear evolution of the parametric instabilities, and the alpha particles are resonantly heated in both the parallel and perpendicular direction by the backward waves. On the other hand, when the drift velocity of alpha particles is small, the alpha particles are heated in the linear growth stage of the parametric instabilities due to the Landau resonance with the excited ion acoustic waves. Therefore, the heating occurs only in the parallel direction, and there is no obvious heating in the perpendicular direction. The relevance of our results to the preferential heating of heavy ions observed in the solar wind within 0.3 AU is also discussed in this paper.
Experiments and theory on parametric instabilities excited in HF heating experiments at HAARP
Parametric instabilities excited by O-mode HF heater and the induced ionospheric modification were explored via HAARP digisonde operated in a fast mode. The impact of excited Langmuir waves and upper hybrid waves on the ionosphere are manifested by bumps in the virtual spread, which expand the ionogram echoes upward as much as 140 km and the downward range spread of the sounding echoes, which exceeds 50 km over a significant frequency range. The theory of parametric instabilities is presented. The theory identifies the ionogram bump located between the 3.2 MHz heater frequency and the upper hybrid resonance frequency and the bump below the upper hybrid resonance frequency to be associated with the Langmuir and upper hybrid instabilities, respectively. The Langmuir bump is located close to the upper hybrid resonance frequency, rather than to the heater frequency, consistent with the theory. Each bump in the virtual height spread of the ionogram is similar to the cusp occurring in daytime ionograms at the E-F2 layer transition, indicating that there is a small ledge in the density profile similar to E-F2 layer transitions. The experimental results also show that the strong impact of the upper hybrid instability on the ionosphere can suppress the Langmuir instability.
Excitation of parametric instabilities by radio waves in the ionosphere.
The excitation of parametric instabilities by radio waves in a magnetoplasma is discussed. A uniform medium is assumed and linear approximations are used. Excitation by a pump wave of ordinary polarization is hardly affected by the magnetic field. Low or zero frequency ion waves and high frequency Langmuir waves are excited simultaneously. For an extraordinary pump wave, the excited high frequency electrostatic waves are in the Bernstein mode. The threshold is slightly higher and excitation can occur only within certain 'allowed' frequency bands. A new type of parametric instability in which the excited waves are electromagnetic in nature and which is more strongly affected by the inhomogeneous nature of the medium is discussed qualitatively.
Spectral-line structures of saturated parametric instabilities.
The nonlinear saturation spectrum of parametric instabilities is shown to be restricted to discrete values of the propagation vector if spontaneous emission is neglected and a one-dimensional analysis is used. The purely growing instability is not excited for equal ion and electron temperatures if the power is less than 3.5 times the threshold power. The inadequacy of the present one-dimensional treatment is pointed out, and it is shown that waves with propagation vectors that are not parallel to the pump field must be present even if spontaneous emission is neglected.
Convective amplification of a three-wave parametric instability in inhomogeneous plasma
The three-wave parametric instability in inhomogeneous plasma is revisited and the inconsistency of the convective amplification in previous literatures is resolved. By employing multiple methods, the amplification factor of the decay mode due to the inhomogeneity is confirmed as A=πγ{sub 0}{sup 2}/(v{sub g1x}v{sub g2x}κ{sup ′}), which is independent of the linear damping rate of the decay mode, where γ{sub 0} is the nonlinear growth rate in homogeneous plasma, v{sub g1x} and v{sub g2x} are the group velocities in the x direction of the two decay modes and κ{sup ′} is the derivative of the wavevector mismatch of the three coupled waves due to the plasma inhomogeneity.
Electron parametric instabilities in nonuniform plasma with a strong density gradient excited by femtosecond laser pulses of subrelativistic intensity
We consider the excitation of electron parametric instability in the oblique incidence of femtosecond laser radiation of subrelativistic intensity on a plasma with the nonuniformity scale length of the order of the radiation wavelength λ. Estimates are obtained for two-plasmon decay instability increments in this plasma, and the generation of plasma waves due to parametric instabilities is numerically simulated by the particle-in-cell technique. The spatial spectrum of these waves is shown to broaden to the level corresponding to several values of the wavenumber k{sub 0} of the component aligned with the electron density gradient and the wavenumbers of the component normal to the gradient have values ∼ k{sub 0}. (paper)
Suppressing parametric instabilities in direct-drive inertial-confinement-fusion plasmas using broadband laser light
It has long been recognized that broadband laser light has the potential to control parametric instabilities in inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) plasmas. Here, we use results from laser-plasma-interaction simulations to estimate the bandwidth requirements for mitigating the three predominant classes of instabilities in direct-drive ICF implosions: cross-beam energy transfer (CBET), two-plasmon decay (TPD), and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). We find that for frequency-tripled, Nd:glass laser light, a bandwidth of 8.5 THz can significantly increase laser absorption by suppressing CBET, while ∼13 THz is needed to mitigate absolute TPD and SRS on an ignition-scale platform. None of the glass lasers used in contemporary ICF experiments, however, possess a bandwidth greater than 1 THz and reaching larger values requires the use of an auxiliary broadening technique such as optical parametric amplification or stimulated-rotational-Raman scattering. An arguably superior approach is the adoption of an argon-fluoride (ArF) laser as an ICF driver. Besides having a broad bandwidth of ∼10 THz, the ArF laser also possesses the shortest wavelength (193 nm) that can scale to the high energy/power required for ICF—a feature that helps to mitigate parametric instabilities even further. We show that these native properties of ArF laser light are sufficient to eliminate nearly all CBET scattering in a direct-drive target and also raise absolute TPD and SRS thresholds well above those for broadband glass lasers. The effective control of parametric instabilities with broad bandwidth is potentially a “game changer” in ICF because it would enable higher laser intensities and ablation pressures in future target designs.
Parametric instabilities of a large-amplitude circularly polarized Alfven wave - Linear growth in two-dimensional geometries
The growth of parametric instabilities, which may lead to the development of a turbulent cascade, is studied using an MHD code that permits nonlinear couplings in the parallel direction to the ambient magnetic field and one perpendicular direction. Compressibility is included in the form of a polytropic equation of state. Parametric instabilities associated with a parallel-propagating decay instability are found to dominate the low-beta case. An obliquely propagating filamentationlike instability dominates the high-beta case. The nonlinear growth of the nth harmonic of a daughter wave growing as a factor of n times the fundamental's growth rate is found in both cases. Nonlinear saturation is caused by the parallel decay instability in the low-beta case and by the oblique filamentationlike instability in the high-beta case.
He{sup 2+} HEATING VIA PARAMETRIC INSTABILITIES OF PARALLEL PROPAGATING ALFVÉN WAVES WITH AN INCOHERENT SPECTRUM
The preferential heating of heavy ions in the solar corona and solar wind has been a long-standing hot topic. In this paper we use a one-dimensional hybrid simulation model to investigate the heating of He{sup 2+} particles during the parametric instabilities of parallel propagating Alfvén waves with an incoherent spectrum. The evolution of the parametric instabilities has two stages and involves the heavy ion heating during the entire evolution. In the first stage, the density fluctuations are generated by the modulation of the pump Alfvén waves with a spectrum, which then results in rapid coupling with the pump Alfvén waves and the cascade of the magnetic fluctuations. In the second stage, each pump Alfvén wave decays into a forward density mode and a backward daughter Alfvén mode, which is similar to that of a monochromatic pump Alfvén wave. In both stages the perpendicular heating of He{sup 2+} particles occurs. This is caused by the cyclotron resonance between He{sup 2+} particles and the high-frequency magnetic fluctuations, whereas the Landau resonance between He{sup 2+} particles and the density fluctuations leads to the parallel heating of He{sup 2+} particles. The influence of the drift velocity between the protons and the He{sup 2+} particles on the heating of He{sup 2+} particles is also discussed in this paper.
Local parametric instability near elliptic points in vortex flows under shear deformation
The dynamics of two point vortices embedded in an oscillatory external flow consisted of shear and rotational components is addressed. The region associated with steady-state elliptic points of the vortex motion is established to experience local parametric instability. The instability forces the point vortices with initial positions corresponding to the steady-state elliptic points to move in spiral-like divergent trajectories. This divergent motion continues until the nonlinear effects suppress their motion near the region associated with the steady-state separatrices. The local parametric instability is then demonstrated not to contribute considerably to enhancing the size of the chaotic motion regions. Instead, the size of the chaotic motion region mostly depends on overlaps of the nonlinear resonances emerging in the perturbed system.
Time evolution from linear to nonlinear stages in magnetohydrodynamic parametric instabilities
The nonlinear evolution of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) parametric instability of wave fluctuations propagating along an unperturbed magnetic field is investigated. Both a magnetohydrodynamic perturbation-theoretical approach and a nonlinear MHD simulation are used. It is shown that high harmonic waves are rapidly excited by wave-wave coupling, and that the wave spectrum evolves from a state containing a small number of degrees of freedom in k space to one which contains a large number of degrees of freedom. It is found that the spectral evolution prior to nonlinear saturation is well described by the prturbation theory. During this stage, the ratio of the growth rate of the nth harmonic wave to the linear growth rate of the fundamental wave is n. The nonlinear saturation stage is characterized by a frequency shift of the fundamental wave that destroys the wave-wave resonance condition which, in turn, causes the wave amplitude to cease its growth.
Parametric Instabilities Of Alfven Waves
Report presents theoretical study of parametric instabilities of finite-amplitude, circularly-polarized Alfven waves in plasma having pressure anisotropy. Waves studied are observed in solar wind and conjectured to exist in interstellar and other cosmic plasmas.
Trapped Particle Effects in the Parametric Instability of Near-Acoustic Plasma Waves
Quantitative experiments on the parametric decay instability of near-acoustic plasma waves provide strong evidence that trapped particles reduce the instability threshold below fluid models. At low temperatures, the broad characteristics of the parametric instability are determined by the frequency detuning of the pump and daughter wave, and the wave-wave coupling strength, surprisingly consistent with cold fluid, three-wave theories. Furthermore, at higher temperatures, trapped particle effects dominate, and the pump wave becomes unstable at half the threshold pump wave amplitude with similar exponential growth rates as for a cold plasma.
Nonlinear interaction and parametric instability of kinetic Alfven waves in multicomponent plasmas
Nonlinear couplings among kinetic Alfven waves are investigated for a three-component plasma consisting of electrons, protons, and heavy ions. The parametric instability is investigated, and the growth rate is obtained. In the kinetic regime, the growth rate for the parallel decay instability increases with the heavy ion content, but the growth rate for the reverse decay is independent of the latter since the perpendicular wavelength is much larger than the ion gyroradius. It decreases with the heavy ion content when the perpendicular wavelength is of the order of the ion gyroradius. It is also found that in the short perpendicular wavelength limit, the growth rate is only weakly affected by the heavy ions. On the other hand, in the inertial regime, for both parallel and reverse decay cases, the growth rate decreases as the number of heavy ions becomes large.
Parametric instabilities of the circularly polarized Alfven waves including dispersion
A class of parametric instabilities of large-amplitude, circularly polarized Alfven waves is considered in which finite frequency (dispersive) effects are included. The dispersion equation governing the instabilities is a sixth-order polynomial which is solved numerically. As a function of K identically equal to k/k-sub-0 (where k-sub-0 and k are the wave number of the 'pump' wave and unstable sound wave, respectively), there are three regionals of instability: a modulation instability at K less than 1, a decay instability at K greater than 1, and a relatively weak and narrow instability at K close to squared divided by v-sub-A squared (where c-sub-s and v-sub-A are the sound and Alfven speeds respectively), the modulational instability occurs when beta is less than 1 (more than 1) for left-hand (right-hand) pump waves, in agreement with the previous results of Sakai and Sonnerup (1983). The growth rate of the decay instability of left-hand waves is greater than the modulational instability at all values of beta. Applications to large-amplitude wave observed in the solar wind, in computer simulations, and in the vicinity of planetary and interplanetary collisionless shocks are discussed.