Related papers: Simplest AB-Thermonuclear Space Propulsion and Ele…
In contrast to the broad stream of sustainable developments on fusion energy, new aspects are developed now by applying ultra-short, ultra-powerful laser pulses in a plasma-block ignition scheme by avoiding the well known difficulties of…
The connection between turbulence and solar-wind acceleration, long known in space physics, is further developed in this Letter by establishing a robust empirical law that relates the bulk-flow speed to the magnetohydrodynamic-scale…
Neutron stars, just after their formation, are surrounded by expanding, dense, and very hot envelopes which radiate thermal photons. Iron nuclei can be accelerated in the wind zones of such energetic pulsars to very high energies. These…
In this work we are going to develop a physical model that explains how propulsion may be developed in a vacuum by the collision of electrons with an anode. Instead of using principles related to the conservation of only the mechanical…
Aneutronic and nonradioactive properties make the proton-boron fusion a prospective candidate for fusion energy production through reactions following p+$^{11}$B$\rightarrow$3${\alpha}$ (p-$^{11}$B). However, it is difficult to achieve a…
A method and facilities for delivering payload and people into outer space are presented. This method uses, in general, engines located on a planetary surface. The installation consists of a space apparatus, power drive stations, which…
Magnetic reconnection is invoked as one of the primary mechanisms to produce energetic particles. We employ large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated ($\sigma=10$) pair plasmas…
Lightsails are a highly promising spacecraft concept that has attracted interest in recent years due to its potential to travel at near-relativistic speeds. Such speeds, which current conventional crafts cannot reach, offer tantalizing…
Externally controlled motion of micro and nanomotors in a fluid environment constitutes a promising tool in biosensing, targeted delivery and environmental remediation. In particular, recent experiments have demonstrated that fuel-free…
Context. There is a population of runaway stars that move at extremely high speeds with respect to their surroundings. The fast motion and the stellar wind of these stars, plus the wind-medium interaction, can lead to particle acceleration…
A propulsion concept in which a spacecraft interacts with high-velocity pellets and the interstellar medium is proposed. The pellets are slower than the spacecraft and are accelerated backwards as they are overtaken, imparting a forward…
(Abridged) We have recently proposed that the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) observed above the GZK limit could be mostly protons accelerated in reconnection sites just above the magnetosphere of newborn millisecond pulsars…
We theoretically investigate high energy, collimated proton beam with three dimensional particle in cell simulations of ultrashort petawatt laser interaction with cryogenic hydrogen target of various shapes. Here we show that under…
Within an electric circuit description of extragalactic jets temporal variations of the electric currents are associated with finite collisionless conductivities and consequently magnetic-field aligned electric fields $E_\parallel$. The…
Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of accelerating electrons to MeV energies in ambient air using tightly focused laser configurations. In this article, we explore possible strategies to control and optimize the resulting…
We explore heavy element nucleosynthesis in neutrino-driven winds from rapidly-rotating, strongly magnetized proto-neutron stars for which the magnetic dipole is aligned with the rotation axis, and the field is assumed to be a static…
Recent observations in the quasi-parallel bow shock by the MMS spacecraft show rapid heating and acceleration of ions up to an energy of about 100 keV. It is demonstrated that a prominent acceleration mechanism is the nonlinear interaction…
In this paper the possibility of the excitation of collective nuclear motion with attosecond laser pulses is investigated. Following our earlier results (Lasers in Engineering 11 (2001) p. 259) the hyperbolic heat transport for nuclear…
We demonstrate that electrons can be efficiently accelerated to high energy in spatially non-uniform, intense laser fields. Laser non-uniformities occur when a perfect plane wave reflects off a randomly perturbed surface. By solving for…
A technique by which a spacecraft can interact with flows of ionized gas in space (the solar wind or interstellar medium) to be accelerated to velocities greater than the wind velocity is explored. Inspired by the dynamic soaring maneuvers…