Plasma Physics Reports 

About: Plasma Physics Reports is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Plasma & Electron. It has an ISSN identifier of 1063-780X. Over the lifetime, 3038 publications have been published receiving 23267 citations.

Feasibility of using laser ion accelerators in proton therapy

Abstract: The feasibility of using laser plasma as a source of high-energy ions for the purposes of proton therapy is discussed The proposal is based on the efficient ion acceleration observed in recent laboratory and numerical experiments on the interaction of high-power laser radiation with gaseous and solid targets The specific dependence of proton energy losses in biological tissues (the Bragg peak) promotes the solution of one of the main problems of radiation therapy, namely, the irradiation of a malignant tumor with a sufficiently strong and homogeneous dose, ensuring that the irradiation of the surrounding healthy tissues and organs is minimal In the scheme proposed, a beam of fast ions accelerated by a laser pulse can be integrated in the installations intended for proton therapy

Investigation of the mechanism for rapid heating of nitrogen and air in gas discharges

Abstract: A rapid heating of nitrogen-oxygen mixtures excited by gas discharges is investigated numerically with allowance for the following main processes: the reactions of predissociation of highly excited electronic states of oxygen molecules (which are populated via electron impact or via the quenching of the excited states of N2 molecules), the reactions of quenching of the excited atoms O(1 D) by nitrogen molecules, the VT relaxation reactions, etc. The calculated results adequately describe available experimental data on the dynamics of air heating in gas-discharge plasmas. It is shown that, over a broad range of values of the reduced electric field E/N, gas heating is maintained by a fixed fraction of the discharge power that is expended on the excitation of the electronic degrees of freedom of molecules (for discharges in air, ηE⋍28%). The lower the oxygen content of the mixture, the smaller the quantity ηE. The question of a rapid heating of nitrogen with a small admixture of oxygen is discussed.

Optimization of computational MHD normal-mode analysis for tokamaks

Abstract: A set of MHD equations that are optimized for specific tokamak conditions is derived and implemented in the new ideal-MHD code MISHKA-1. The numerical scheme is based on the Galerkin method (which solves the equations in their weak form) and allows the study of problems that are described by non-self-adjoint MHD operators. Consequently, the MISHKA-1 code can be improved to describe non-ideal MHD effects including drift and neoclassical and other essentially kinetic effects that are important for the stability of high temperature plasmas. The new ideal MHD code described in this paper can be treated as a first step toward a 'generalized MHD' code for a set of moment equations for ion and electron distribution functions in different collisionality plasmas.

Thin current sheets in collisionless plasma: Equilibrium structure, plasma instabilities, and particle acceleration

Abstract: The review is devoted to plasma structures with an extremely small transverse size, namely, thin current sheets that have been discovered and investigated by spacecraft observations in the Earth’s magnetotail in the last few decades. The formation of current sheets is attributed to complicated dynamic processes occurring in a collisionless space plasma during geomagnetic perturbations and near the magnetic reconnection regions. The models that describe thin current structures in the Earth’s magnetotail are reviewed. They are based on the assumption of the quasi-adiabatic ion dynamics in a relatively weak magnetic field of the magnetotail neutral sheet, where the ions can become unmagnetized. It is shown that the ion distribution can be represented as a function of the integrals of particle motion—the total energy and quasi-adiabatic invariant. Various modifications of the initial equilibrium are considered that are obtained with allowance for the currents of magnetized electrons, the contribution of oxygen ions, the asymmetry of plasma sources, and the effects related to the non-Maxwellian particle distributions. The theoretical results are compared with the observational data from the Cluster spacecraft mission. Various plasma instabilities developing in thin current sheets are investigated. The evolution of the tearing mode is analyzed, and the parameter range in which the mode can grow are determined. The paradox of complete stabilization of the tearing mode in current sheets with a nonzero normal magnetic field component is thereby resolved based on the quasi-adiabatic model. It is shown that, over a wide range of current sheet parameters and the propagation directions of large-scale unstable waves, various modified drift instabilities—kink and sausage modes—can develop in the system. Based on the concept of a turbulent electromagnetic field excited as a result of the development and saturation of unstable waves, a mechanism for charged particle acceleration in turbulent current sheets is proposed and the energy spectra of the accelerated particles are obtained.

Interaction of Electromagnetic Waves with Plasma in the Radiation-Dominated Regime

Abstract: A study is made of the main regimes of interaction of relativistically strong electromagnetic waves with plasma under conditions in which the radiation from particles plays a dominant role. The discussion is focused on such issues as the generation of short electromagnetic pulses in the interaction of laser light with clusters and highly efficient ion acceleration in a thin plasma slab under the action of the ponderomotive pressure of the wave. An approach is developed for generating superintense electromagnetic pulses by means of up-to-date laser devices.