Related papers: Electron acceleration driven by the lower-hybrid-d…
Density inhomogeneities are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas, particularly at magnetic reconnection sites, shock fronts, and within compressible turbulence. The gradients associated with these inhomogeneous plasma regions serve…
Turbulence is often invoked to explain the origin of nonthermal particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. By means of 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate that turbulence in low-$\beta$ plasmas ($\beta$ is the…
We discuss electron acceleration and heating during collisionless magnetic reconnection by using the results of implicit kinetic simulations of Harris current sheets. We consider and compare electron dynamics in plasmas with different \beta…
In collision-poor space plasmas protons with an excess of kinetic energy or temperature in direction perpendicular to background magnetic field can excite the electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) instability. This instability is expected to…
We use 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the effect of the saturated whistler instability on the viscous heating and nonthermal acceleration of electrons in a shearing, collisionless plasma with a growing magnetic field,…
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…
We have shown that there exists low-frequency growing modes driven by a global temperature gradient in electron and ion plasmas, by linear perturbation analysis within the frame work of plasma Kinetic theory. The driving force of the…
We outline transient quasi-magnetostatic phenomena associated with Weibel-type instabilities, mainly, the formation and decay of the current sheets and filaments. We consider a collisionless anisotropic plasma cloud with hot electrons…
The fully three dimensional governing equations in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) regime for a plasma with inhomogeneous density is obtained. These equations in the two dimensional (2-D) limit can be cast in terms of the evolution…
In systems accreting well below the Eddington rate, the plasma in the innermost regions of the disk is collisionless and two-temperature, with the ions hotter than the electrons. Yet, whether a collisionless faster-than-Coulomb energy…
The quasilinear particle flux arising from gyrokinetic instabilities is calculated in the electrostatic and collisionless approximation, keeping the geometry of the magnetic field arbitrary. In particular, the flux of electrons and heavy…
In the innermost regions of low-luminosity accretion flows, including Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy, the frequency of Coulomb collisions is so low that the plasma is two-temperature, with the ions substantially hotter than the…
Plasma flow and acceleration in a magnetic mirror configuration are studied using a drift-kinetic particles-in-cell model in the paraxial approximation, with an emphasis on finite temperature effects and energy transport. Energy conversion…
We simulate, using a particle-in-cell code, the chain of acceleration processes at work during the Compton-based interaction of a dilute electron-ion plasma with an extreme-intensity, incoherent gamma-ray flux with a photon density several…
To determine the electron heat flux density on macroscopic scales, the most widely used approach is to solve a diffusion equation through a multi-group technique. This method is however restricted to transport induced by temperature…
It is shown that the transport in low temperature, collisional, bounded plasma is enhanced by instabilities at high magnetic field. While the magnetic field confines the electrons in a stable plasma, the instability completely destroys the…
The collision of two expanding plasma clouds is investigated, emphasizing instabilities and electron energization in the plasma mixing layer. This work is directly relevant to laboratory experiments with explosively-created laser or z-pinch…
We obtain exact upper and lower bounds on the steady state drift velocity, and kinetic energy of electrons, driven by an external field in a weakly ionized plasma (swarm approximation). The scattering is assumed to be elastic with…
In this work the multistream quasiparticle model of collective electron excitations is used to study the energy-density distribution of collective quantum excitations in an interacting electron gas with arbitrary degree of degeneracy.…
The first comprehensive study of electron gains and losses in hypersonic air flows including the full coupling between the non-neutral plasma sheaths and the quasi-neutral plasma flow is here presented. Such is made possible by the use of…