Related papers: Rotating spoke instabilities in a wall-less Hall t…
Parker instability arises from the presence of magnetic fields in a plasma in a gravitational field such as the interstellar medium (ISM), wherein the magnetic buoyant pressure expels the gas and causes the gas to move along the field…
A fully kinetic 2D axisymmetric Particle-in-Cell (PIC) model is used to examine the effects of background facility pressure on the plasma transport and propulsive efficiency of magnetic nozzles. Simulations are performed for a low-power…
To fully characterize electron drift instability, a critical phenomenon governing electron transport in Hall thrusters, large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are essential, as the instability inherently…
The electron-cyclotron drift instability (ECDI) has been proposed as one of the main actors behind the anomalous transport of electrons in Hall plasmas. In this work, we revisit the classical theory of this instability [Forslund et al.,…
Magnetic nozzles (MN) are known to be subject to anomalous non-collisional diffusion mechanisms driven by instabilities and wave-particle interactions. This study therefore employs a fully kinetic axial-radial particle-in-cell (PIC) model…
This paper reports on 3D numerical simulations of dynamics and thermodynamics in the diffuse ISM. Our models are local, account for sheared galactic rotation, magnetic fields, and realistic cooling, and resolve scales ~1-200 pc. This…
The low-frequency instability of a cylindrical poorly magnetized plasma with an inward-directed radial electric field is studied changing the gas pressure and the ion cyclotron frequency. The unstable frequency always decreases when the gas…
We show, by means of a perturbative weakly nonlinear analysis, that the axisymmetric magneto-rotational instability (MRI) in a magnetic Taylor-Couette (mTC) flow in a thin-gap gives rise, for very small magnetic Prandtl numbers (P_m), to a…
In plasmas with electron drift (current) relative to static ions, the ion acoustic wave is subject to the kinetic instability which takes place if the directed electron speed exceeds the ion acoustic speed. The instability threshold becomes…
Coupling between electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom in a single electron shuttle system can cause a mechanical instability leading to shuttle transport of electrons between external leads. We predict that the resulting low…
The stability of subcritical perpendicular fast magnetosonic shocks, which are propagating at 1.7 times the fast magnetosonic speed, is investigated using two-dimensional PIC simulations. The plasma, composed of electrons and fully ionized…
A compact helicon plasma thruster that features a cusp in its internal magnetic field is analyzed with experiments and simulations. A compensated Langmuir probe and a Faraday cup are used in the former, while a hybrid PIC/fluid transport…
Magnetic field amplification is an integral part of the process of particle acceleration at non-relativistic shocks. It is necessary to reach the maximum energies required by observations, especially in supernova remnants, thought to be…
We study with particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations the stability of fast magnetosonic shocks. They expand across a collisionless plasma and an orthogonal magnetic field that is aligned with one of the directions resolved by the 2D…
We demonstrate that a quantum spin Hall current, spontaneously generated at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator, acts as a source of spin-pumping for a magnetic impurity with uniaxial anisotropy. One can then manipulate the…
A shock tube problem is solved numerically by using one-dimensional full particle-in-cell simulations under the condition that a relatively tenuous and weakly magnetized plasma is continuously pushed by a relatively dense and strongly…
Solar wind is probably the best laboratory to study turbulence in astrophysical plasmas. In addition to the presence of magnetic field, the differences with neutral fluid isotropic turbulence are: weakness of collisional dissipation and…
Instabilities of ion-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma with electron-drift, collisional, and dust charge fluctuations effects, have been investigated. The regimes are clearly marked out where the theory is applicable. The critical…
The relationship between a decaying plasma turbulence and proton fire hose instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using three-dimensional (3-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic…
The kinetic theory for the cylindrical plasma, produced by the cylindrically symmetric (azimuthal mode number m=0) helicon wave, is developed with accounting for the cylindrical geometry and the radial inhomogeneity of the helicon wave and…