Related papers: Diffusion correction to the avalanche--to--streame…
We recently have shown that a negative streamer in a sufficiently high homogeneous field can branch spontaneously due to a Laplacian instability, rather than approach a stationary mode of propagation with fixed radius. In our previous…
Streamer discharges pose basic problems in plasma physics, as they are very transient, far from equilibrium and have high ionization density gradients; they appear in diverse areas of science and technology. The present paper focuses on the…
In this paper we present the complete derivation of the effective contour model for electrical discharges which appears as the asymptotic limit of the minimal streamer model for the propagation of electric discharges, when the electron…
We theoretically study the inception and propagation of positive and negative streamers in CO$_2$. Our study is done in 3D, using a newly formulated kinetic Monte Carlo discharge model where the electrons are described as drifting and…
We develop an axial model for single steadily propagating positive streamers in air. It uses observable parameters to estimate quantities that are difficult to measure. More specifically, for given velocity, radius, length and applied…
We introduce a 3D hybrid model for streamer discharges that follows the dynamics of single electrons in the region with strong field enhancement at the streamer tip while approximating the many electrons in the streamer interior as…
Disruption-generated runaway electrons (RE) present an outstanding issue for ITER. The predictive computational studies of RE generation rely on orbit-averaged computations and, as such, they lack the effects from the magnetic field…
We propose a many-particle-inspired theory for granular outflows from a hopper and for the escape dynamics through a bottleneck based on a continuity equation in polar coordinates. If the inflow is below the maximum outflow, we find an…
It is by now well understood that large sprite discharges at the low air densities of the mesosphere are physically similar to small streamer discharges in air at standard temperature and pressure. This similarity is based on Townsend…
Positive streamers need a source of free electrons ahead of them to propagate. A streamer can supply these electrons by itself through photo-ionization, or the electrons can be present due to external background ionization. Here we…
We propose a new approach to unambiguous determination of parameters of positive and negative electric streamer discharges. From hydrodynamic equations, in the assumption of a solution in the shape of a streamer, it is possible to derive…
Motivated by recent experiments on the finite temperature Mott transition in VO2 films, we propose a classical coarse-grained dielectric breakdown model where each degree of freedom represents a nanograin which transitions from insulator to…
Charge transport in electrorheological fluids is studied experimentally under strongly nonequlibrium conditions. By injecting an electrical current into a suspension of conducting nanoparticles we are able to initiate a process of…
We simulate short positive and negative streamers in air at standard temperature and pressure. They evolve in homogeneous electric fields or emerge from needle electrodes with voltages of 10 to 20 kV. The streamer velocity at given streamer…
We compare simulations and experiments of single positive streamer discharges in air at 100 mbar, aiming towards model validation. Experimentally, streamers are generated in a plate-plate geometry with a protruding needle. We are able to…
The propagation of dislocations in random crystals is evidenced to be governed by atomic-scale avalanches whose the extension in space and the time intermittency characterizingly diverge at the critical threshold. Our work is the very first…
We consider a particle diffusing inside a wedge with absorbing boundaries and driven by a radial flow of incompressible fluid generated by a source at the apex. The survival probability decays as (time)^{-b} with exponent depending on the…
Streamers are ionization fronts that occur in gases at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric pressures. Numerical studies of streamers are important for practical applications but are challenging due to the multiscale nature of this discharge…
The effects of kinetic whistler-wave instabilities on the runaway-electron (RE) avalanche is investigated. With parameters from DIII-D experiments, we show that RE scattering from excited whistler waves can explain several poorly understood…
Streamers are the first stage of sparks and lightning; they grow due to a strongly enhanced electric field at their tips; this field is created by a thin curved space charge layer. These multiple scales are already challenging when the…