Related papers: Propellantless space exploration
Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies during explosive energy-release phenomena in space, solar, and astrophysical plasma environments. While it has been established that magnetic reconnection plays an important role…
The manuscript deals with electron acceleration by a laser pulse in a plasma with a static uniform magnetic field $B_*$. The laser pulse propagates perpendicular to the magnetic field lines with the polarization chosen such that…
Gravitational theories differing from General Relativity may explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe without a cosmological constant. However, to pass local gravitational tests, a "screening mechanism" is needed to suppress, on…
A key property of many BPS solutions of supergravity is the fact that certain probe branes placed in these solutions feel no force, essentially because electric repulsion and gravitational attraction balance one another. In this letter we…
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) techniques have developed rapidly within the past few decades. Using UAVs provides benefits in numerous applications such as site surveying, communication systems, parcel delivery, target tracking, etc. The…
Close planetary flybys are frequently employed as a technique to place spacecraft on extreme solar system trajectories that would otherwise require much larger booster vehicles or may not even be feasible when relying solely on chemical…
Selection effects, such as interstellar extinction and varying survey depth, complicate efforts to determine the gravitational potential - and thus the distribution of baryonic and dark matter - throughout the Milky Way galaxy using stellar…
The solar wind drag-based model is a widely used framework for predicting the propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) through interplanetary space. This model primarily considers the aerodynamic drag exerted by the solar wind on CMEs.…
Over the last decade, there has been a respectable level of scientific interest regarding the concept of a warp drive. This is a hypothetical propulsion device that could theoretically circumvent the traditional limitations of special…
Force-Free Electrodynamics (FFE) describes magnetically dominated relativistic plasma via non-linear equations for the electromagnetic field alone. Such plasma is thought to play a key role in the physics of pulsars and active black holes.…
Pulsars are natural cosmic clocks. On long timescales they rival the precision of terrestrial atomic clocks. Using a technique called pulsar timing, the exact measurement of pulse arrival times allows a number of applications, ranging from…
It is generally accepted that the pulsar magnetic field converts most of its rotational energy losses into radiation. In this paper, we propose an alternative emission mechanism, in which neither the pulsar rotational energy nor its…
The interaction of collisionless shocks with fully developed plasma turbulence is numerically investigated. Hybrid kinetic simulations, where a turbulent jet is slammed against an oblique shock, are employed to address the role of upstream…
As is known the repulsion of the volume elements of an uniformly accelerating charge or a charge supported in an uniform gravitational field accounts for the electromagnetic contribution to the charge's inertial and gravitational mass,…
We show that pulsar velocities may arise from anisotropic neutrino emission induced by resonant conversions of massless neutrinos in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The main ingredient is a small violation of weak universality and…
The future of space exploration missions will rely on technologies increasing their endurance and self-sufficiency, including for manufacturing objects on-demand. We propose a process for handling and additively manufacturing powders that…
It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local…
Fast, counter-streaming plasma outflows drive magnetic field amplification, plasma heating, and particle acceleration in numerous astrophysical environments, from supernova remnant shocks to active galactic nuclei jets. Understanding how,…
The formation of collisionless shock fronts is an ubiquitous phenomenon in space plasma environments. In the solar wind shocks might accompany coronal mass ejections, while even more violent events, such as supernovae, produce shock fronts…
Compact laser-driven accelerators are versatile and powerful tools of unarguable relevance on societal grounds for the diverse purposes of science, health, security, and technology because they bring enormous practicality to…