Related papers: Performance of Oscillating Plasma Thrusters
We report here on initial studies of a pulsed hydromagnetic plasma gun that can operate in either a pre-filled or a gas-puff mode on demand. These modes enable agile and responsive performance through tunable thrust and specific impulse.…
We present a simple model for the turbulent kinetic energy behavior of subsonic plasma turbulence undergoing isotropic three-dimensional compression, such as may exist in various inertial confinement fusion experiments or astrophysical…
Magnetic nozzles are a key component of electrodeless plasma thrusters, acting as their main acceleration stage. Non-stationary phenomena common to the entire range of $E \times B$ devices, such as oscillations and instabilities, are likely…
The author presents a model for variability of the flux and polarization of blazars in which turbulent plasma flowing at a relativistic speed down a jet crosses a standing conical shock. The shock compresses the plasma and accelerates…
All experiments, which have been proposed so far to model the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in the laboratory, involve a Couette flow of liquid metals in a rotating annulus. All liquid metals have small magnetic Prandtl numbers, Pm,…
Observations of galaxy clusters show that the intracluster medium (ICM) is likely to be turbulent and is certainly magnetized. The properties of this magnetized turbulence are determined both by fundamental nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic…
Turbulent plasma flow, amplified by rapid 3D compression, can be suddenly dissipated under continuing compression. This effect relies on the sensitivity of the plasma viscosity to the temperature, $\mu \sim T^{5/2}$. The plasma viscosity is…
We present the first observation of instability in weakly magnetized, pressure dominated plasma Couette flow firmly in the Hall regime. Strong Hall currents couple to a low frequency electromagnetic mode that is driven by high-$\beta$…
Plasma in the terrestrial magnetosheath is characterised by very weak particle-particle collisions, so kinetic microinstabilities are thought to be responsible for regulating the thermodynamics of the plasma. By exciting electromagnetic…
High-power magnetically shielded Hall thrusters have recently emerged to meet the needs of the next-generation space missions. Even though a few such thrusters are currently undergoing their late-stage development campaigns, many unanswered…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…
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…
Scaling laws for the transport and heating of trace heavy ions in low-frequency, magnetized plasma turbulence are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. The predicted dependences of turbulent fluxes and heating on ion…
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…
A uniform in space, oscillatory in time plasma equilibrium sustained by a time-dependent current density is analytically and numerically studied resorting to particle-in-cell simulations. The dispersion relation is derived from the Vlasov…
This research work is part of a PhD project aiming to design a new helicon plasma thruster for cargo space missions, within a collaboration between the School of Aerospace Engineering of La Sapienza University and the ENEA Frascati research…
The problem of determining the effective conductivity tensor of a magnetoactive turbulent plasma is considered in the approximation of isolated particles. Additional gyrotropicterms are shown to appear in the conductivity tensor in the…
We propose a new two-fluid model for a partially ionized magnetoplasma under gravity, where electrons and neutrals are treated as a single fluid, and singly charged positive ions are a separate fluid. We observe that the classical result of…
Low frequency ionization oscillations involving plasma and neutral density (breathing modes) are the most violent perturbations in Hall thrusters for electric propulsion. Because of its simplicity, the zero-dimensional (0-D) predator-prey…
The electrostatic shear-flow-driven ion cyclotron instability of magnetic field aligned sheared plasma flow is investigated analytically. It is shown that the shear-flow-driven electrostatic ion cyclotron instability can be considered as a…