EDDINGTON'S “Internal Constitution of the Stars” was published in 1926 and gives what now ranks as a classical account of his own researches and of the general state of the theory at that time. Since then, a tremendous amount of work has appeared. Much of it has to do with the construction of stellar models with different equations of state applying in different zones. Other parts deal with the effects of varying chemical composition, with pulsation and tidal and rotational distortion of stars, and with the precise relations between the interior and the atmosphere of a star. The striking feature of all this work is that so much can be done without assuming any particular mechanism of stellar energy-generation. Only such very comprehensive assumptions are made about the distribution and behaviour of the energy sources that we may expect future knowledge of their mechanism to lead mainly to more detailed results within the framework of the existing general theory. An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure By S. Chandrasekhar. (Astrophysical Monographs sponsored by The Astrophysical Journal.) Pp. ix+509. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1939.) 50s. net.

An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure

The Petawatt laser at LLNL has opened a new regime of laser-matter interactions in which the quiver motion of plasma electrons is fully relativistic with energies extending well above the threshold for nuclear processes. In addition to -few MeV ponderomotive electrons produced in ultra-intense laser-solid interactions, we have found a high energy component of electrons extending to -100 MeV apparently from relativistic self-focusing and plasma acceleration in the underdense pre-formed plasma. The generation of hard bremsstrahlung, photo-nuclear reactions, and preliminary evidence for positron-electron pair production will be discussed.

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High energy electrons,nuclear phenomena andheating in petawatt laser-solid experiments

The Nobel lecture of Chandrasekhar is printed in which he describes the basic processes that determine the life history of a star with particular emphasis on the roles of stellar mass and radiation pressure (AIP)

On stars, their evolution and their stability.

Quantum plasmas are an important topic in astrophysics and high pressure laboratory physics for more than 50 years. In addition, many condensed matter systems, including the electron gas in metals, metallic nanoparticles, or electron-hole systems in semiconductors and heterostructures, exhibit—to some extent—plasmalike behavior. Among the key theoretical approaches that have been applied to these systems are quantum kinetic theory, Green function theory, quantum Monte Carlo, semiclassical and quantum molecular dynamics, and more recently, density functional theory simulations. These activities are in close contact with the experiments and have firmly established themselves in the fields of plasma physics, astrophysics, and condensed matter physics. About two decades ago, a second branch of quantum plasma theory emerged that is based on a quantum fluid description and has attracted a substantial number of researchers. The focus of these studies has been on collective oscillations and linear and nonlinear waves in quantum plasmas. Even though these papers pretend to address the same physical systems as the more traditional papers mentioned above, the former appear to form a rather closed community that is largely isolated from the rest of the field. The quantum hydrodynamics (QHD) results have—with a few exceptions—not found application in astrophysics or in experiments in condensed matter physics. Moreover, these results practically did not have any impact on the former quantum plasma theory community. One reason is the unknown accuracy of the QHD for dense plasmas. In this paper, we present a novel derivation, starting from reduced density operators that clearly point to the deficiencies of QHD, and we outline possible improvements. It is also to be noted that some of the QHD results have attracted negative attention being criticized as unphysical. Examples include the prediction of “novel attractive forces” between protons in an equilibrium quantum plasma, the notion of “spinning quantum plasmas,” or the new field of “quantum dusty plasmas.” In the present article, we discuss the latter system in some detail because it is a particularly disturbing case of formal theoretical investigations that are detached from physical reality despite bold and unproven claims of importance for, e.g., dense astrophysical plasmas or microelectronics. We stress that these deficiencies are not a problem of QHD itself, which is a powerful and efficient method, but rather are due to ignorance of its properties and limitations. We analyze the common flaws of these works and come up with suggestions to improve the situation of QHD applications to quantum plasmas.

Quantum hydrodynamics for plasmas—Quo vadis?

The magnetic susceptibility of the degenerate free electrons in the crust of a neutron star is computed for a range of densities, temperatures, and field strengths. It is shown that when the temperature is low enough (typically less than 107K for densities of about 107 g cm-3 and 1012 G fields), the susceptibility undergoes large de Haas-van Alphen oscillations. The crust is then unstable to the formation of layers of domains of alternating magnetisation. Associated with these domains are magnetic field fluctuations of a few per cent amplitude and anisotropic magnetostrictive stresses which may be large enough to crumble the crust. It is argued that these domains are unlikely to directly influence the surface properties of the neutron star but may possibly be coupled indirectly to observable effects.

Magnetic susceptibility of a neutron star crust.

Jeans instability is examined in magnetized quantum dusty plasmas using the quantum hydrodynamic model. The quantum effects are considered via exchange-correlation potential, recoil effect, and Fermi degenerate pressure, in addition to thermal effects of plasma species. It is found that the electron exchange and correlation potential have significant effects over the threshold value of wave vector and Jeans instability. The presence of electron exchange and correlation effect shortens the time of dust sound that comparatively stabilizes the self gravitational collapse. The results at quantum scale are helpful in understanding the collapse of the self-gravitating dusty plasma systems.

Jeans instability with exchange effects in quantum dusty magnetoplasmas

The excitation of Upper-Hybrid waves (UHWs) induced by electron beam in semiconductor plasma is examined using quantum hydrodynamic model. Various quantum effects are taken into account including recoil effect, Fermi degenerate pressure, and exchange-correlation potential. The bandwidth of the UHWs spectrum shows that the system supports purely growing unstable mode. The latter has been studied for diversified parameters of nano-sized GaAs semiconductor.

Beam driven upper-hybrid-wave instability in quantized semiconductor plasmas

The influence of quantum effects on the excitation of two instabilities, namely quantum dust-acoustic and quantum dust-lower-hybrid waves due to the free streaming of ion/dust particles in uniformly magnetized dusty plasmas has been investigated using a quantum hydrodynamic model. We have obtained dispersion relations under some particular conditions applied on streaming ions and two contrastreaming dust particle beams at equilibrium and have analyzed the growth rates graphically. We have shown that with the increase of both the electron number density and the streaming speed of ion there is enhancement in the instability due to the fact that the dense plasma particle system with more energetic species having a high speed results in the increase of the growth rate in the electrostatic mode. The application of this work has been pointed out for laboratory as well as for space dusty plasmas.

Low frequency waves in streaming quantum dusty plasmas

By applying the Maxwell and quantum hydrodynamic equations, we have studied the parametric instabilities of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in an unmagnetized electron-ion quantum plasma. In this context, we have derived the nonlinear dispersion relations of the large-amplitude electromagnetic (EM) waves, the electrostatic electron plasma waves, and the ion-acoustic waves. The nonlinear evolution equations are then solved by utilizing the Fourier transform to obtain expressions for the three-wave decay and modulational instabilities with quantum corrections. It is found that the growth rate of the instabilities is a strong function of large-amplitude EM waves, and quantum effects due to Fermi pressure and quantum correlations stabilize both SRS and SBS instabilities. Expressions for the maximum growth rates attributed to SRS and SBS instabilities are also derived by ignoring the nonlinear correction shift on the frequency of EM waves. The relevance of nonlinear interaction of EM waves with a quantum dense astrophysical plasma is highlighted in the perspective of electron Fermi pressure and exchange-correlation effects, where the plasma density is high enough.

Raman and Brillouin scattering instabilities of transverse electromagnetic waves in degenerate electron-ion plasmas

The effect of quantized anisotropic magnetic pressure, arising due to a strong magnetic field, is studied on the growth rate of Jeans instability of quantum electron–ion and classical dusty plasma. Two dispersion relations are formulated for the propagation of the gravitational waves that are perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field, respectively. It is shown that for perpendicular propagation, the quantized magnetic pressure is stabilizing the Jeans instability, whereas for the parallel propagation the plasma become more unstable with the increase in the magnetic field or we can say that Jeans instabilities becomes anisotropic in this case. The corresponding Jeans wave number is calculated in the absence of tunneling effect which shows that the magnetic field anisotropy of the Galaxy is connected with Jeans effect. Further, it is shown that the Madelung term leads to the inhomogeneity of the plasma medium. Numerical results are presented to show the effect of the anisotropic magnetic pressure on the Jeans instability.

Ch. Rozina

Papers

Jeans instability with exchange effects in quantum dusty magnetoplasmas

Beam driven upper-hybrid-wave instability in quantized semiconductor plasmas

Low frequency waves in streaming quantum dusty plasmas

Raman and Brillouin scattering instabilities of transverse electromagnetic waves in degenerate electron-ion plasmas

Jeans anisotropic instability