Merger of super-Alfvenic current filaments during collisionless Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams

Physics – Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The Weibel instability (WI) is one of the most basic and long-studied collective plasma processes. The dynamics and energetics of its nonlinear saturation is important for both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. The WI is likely to play an important role in the Fast Ignitor scenario because it can result in the collective energy loss of a relativistic electron beam in both coronal and core plasma regions. Collisionless WI has been suggested as an important mechanism for relativistic collisionless shock formation in gamma ray bursts. This talk will focus on the strongly nonlinear long-term stage of the instability, during which the beam density of filaments is compressed to the background plasma density, and the ambient plasma is fully evacuated. Analytic and numerical results demonstrate that the beam filaments can carry super-Alfvenic currents by assuming current and density profiles similar to the Hammer-Rostoker equilibrium. This has profound implications for the long-term evolution of the magnetic field and beam current and explains the long-standing puzzle: why magnetic field energy initially increases, but eventually decreases during the collisionless WI. Novel numerical and analytic tools will be described that enable computationally efficient modeling of collective beam filamentation in both collisionless and collisional ambient plasmas. [1] O. Polomarov, A. Sefkow, I. Kaganovich, and G. Shvets, Phys. Plasmas 14, 043103 (2007); O. Polomarov, I. Kaganovich, and G. Shvets, ``Merger of super-Alfvenic current filaments during collisionless Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams,'' submitted to PRL (2008).

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Merger of super-Alfvenic current filaments during collisionless Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Merger of super-Alfvenic current filaments during collisionless Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Merger of super-Alfvenic current filaments during collisionless Weibel instability of relativistic electron beams will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1842443

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.