The dynamic behavior of the electric potential distribution of a plasma sheath region in the presence of monoenergetic electrons with two different values of energy, larger (fast electrons) and smaller (slow electrons) than the cathode potential energy, is examined numerically by the finite difference method. Exploring and comparing the plots of numerical computation results shows that the time evolution of the non-monotonic potential distribution heavily depends on the energy of monoenergetic electrons.

Inertial and diffusive effects on the propagation of hydromagnetic waves in plasmas of finite conductivity are explored by assuming a finite relaxation time for the current density. The domain of validity of the hydromagnetic approximation is determined by defining a lower limit for the perturbative wavelength. Three independent dispersion relations are obtained. At short wavelengths, it is found that the longitudinal component of the perturbative magnetic field damps out at a finite rate, which is determined fully by the relaxation time of the current density. In the same limit, it is shown that Alfvén waves can propagate through conductive plasmas with a null group speed. It is also shown that strong inertial and diffusive effects on magnetosonic waves can be discussed by defining suitably a perturbative parameter with the dimension of speed. It is argued that relevant corrections to space and time scales describing the reconnection of magnetic field lines are expected by applying the results presented here at sufficiently high frequencies.

The application of pulsed power to transient radiofrequency/microwave radiation for warhead/projectile payloads is currently a significant area of research. In this paper, the far-field radiative property of a plasma antenna is analyzed. Then, a plasma jet is generated by burning chemicals, in which the electron concentration and collision frequency are diagnosed, and the electric conductance is calculated. Finally, the feasibility to apply the plasma jet as antenna is investigated by analyzing the radiative pattern. The dependency of pattern on plasma electron density, collision frequency, and plasma wake radius is calculated and analyzed.

In the current study, radial electric field with fluid equations has been calculated. The calculation started with kinetic theory, Boltzmann and momentum balance equations were derived, the negligible terms compared with others were eliminated, and the radial electric field expression in steady state was derived. As mentioned in previous researches, this expression includes all types of particles such as electrons, ions, and neutrals. The consequence of this solution reveals that three major driving forces contribute in radial electric field: radial pressure gradient, poloidal rotation, and toroidal rotation; rotational terms mean Lorentz force. Therefore, radial electric field and plasma rotation are connected through the radial momentum balance.

In order to implement a Scenario of π− catalysis of Deuterium–Tritium (DT) thermonuclear reactions in a dense and hot precompressed target plasma envisioned in the Intertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) fast ignition approach, we pay detailed attention to the stopping of negative pions arising from electro-disintregration of target D and T nuclei by ultra-relativistic e-beams. Emphasis is put on a mostly non-relativistic pion velocity regime (E ≤ 10 MeV).

This review describes the results of investigations on charged particle dynamics in a magnetic field carried out over a number of years. The studies have unravelled the existence of some very surprising and unusual phenomena. Though existing on the macro-scale, they are found to be of quantum origin, and are thereby not covered by the Lorentz equation, which has been regarded conventionally as the descriptor of electrodynamic phenomena on the macro-scale. These novel phenomena have been found to be attributed to the ‘quantum modulation’ of the de Broglie wave along the magnetic field. This is brought about through the scattering-induced transition across Landau levels, leading to the modulation of the plane wave state along the field as a result of the entanglement between the parallel and perpendicular degrees of freedom. These findings were motivated by the predictions of a formalism developed by the author and include such unusual phenomena as (i) macro-scale matter wave interference effects and (ii) the detection of curl-free vector potential also on the macro-scale, both attributed to quantum modulation which is a matter wave on the macro-scale. The formalism is thus described as ‘macro-quantization of guiding centre motion’.

The head-on collision between two magneto-acoustic solitons in spin-1/2 fermionic quantum plasma is studied in the framework of the model proposed by Marklund et al. (Marklund, M., Eliasson, B. and Shukla, P. K. 2007 Phys. Rev. E. 76, 067401). The extended Poincare–Lighthill–Kuo method is used to obtain the phase shifts and the trajectories during the head-on collision of two solitons. The effect of the Zeeman energy for different speeds of the waves, the effect of the total mass density of the charged plasma particles for different strengths of magnetic field, the effect of the speed of the wave for different values of the Zeeman energy, and that of the ratio of the sound speed to Alfven speed for different values of Zeeman energ on the phase shift are studied. It is observed that the phase shifts are significantly affected in all the cases. The most interesting observation of this paper is that the phase shifts increase as well as decrease, and also they may be positive as well as negative depending upon the domain of the chosen parameters.

Asymmetric oscillatory expansion of a cylindrical plasma layer into vacuum is investigated analytically by solving the fluid equations of the electrons and ions together with the Maxwell's equations. For the problem considered, it is found that the asymmetrical flow components are strongly affected by the symmetrical components, but not the vice versa.

The dispersion relation for lattice waves in a linear chain of charged particles in a complex plasma has been derived on the basis of a screened inter-grain repulsive potential and an attractive shadow potential 1/r. It is seen that the inclusion of the attractive potential makes a significant difference in the results; the present results are in good agreement with the experiment. The dispersion relations, corresponding to square and hexagonal planar lattices, with vibrations confined to the plane have also been derived.

A theoretical investigation of the propagation of a relativistic electron (or positron) particle beam in an overdense magnetoactive plasma is carried out within a fluid plasma model, taking into account the individual quantum properties of beam particles. It is demonstrated that the collective character of the particle beam manifests mostly through the self-consistent macroscopic plasma wakefield created by the charge and the current densities of the beam. The transverse dynamics of the beam–plasma system is governed by the Schrödinger equation for a single-particle wavefunction derived under the Hartree mean field approximation, coupled with a Poisson-like equation for the wake potential. These two coupled equations are subsequently reduced to a nonlinear, non-local Schrödinger equation and solved in a strongly non-local regime. An approximate Glauber solution is found analytically in the form of a Hermite–Gauss ring soliton. Such non-stationary (‘breathing’ and ‘wiggling’) coherent structure may be parametrically unstable and the corresponding growth rates are estimated analytically.

The two-fluid model of collisionless forced magnetic reconnection is considered where breaking the frozen-in flow constraint for magnetic field lines is provided by electron inertia. Following the Taylor problem, a tearing stable slab of plasma with a magnetic field reversal is subjected to a small-amplitude boundary perturbation that drives magnetic reconnection at the neutral surface within the plasma. It has been shown that unlike the resistive regime, where the two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) description reduces to the single-fluid MHD regime at sufficiently small values of the ion inertial skin-depth, di ≡ c/ωpi (with ωpi as the ion plasma frequency), there is no room for the single-fluid MHD reconnection in the collisionless case, even at very small values of di. Meanwhile, contradictory to the resistive reconnection, the rate of collisionless Hall reconnection always decreases with time as reconnection proceeds. In particular, in the main stage of Hall reconnection, when transition between two main equilibria states are taking place, it scales as t−1/2.

Properties of dust-ion-acoustic shock waves (DIASWs) in an unmagnetized dusty plasma (containing inertial ions, Maxwellian electrons with two distinctive temperatures and negatively charged immobile dust) are investigated. The hydrodynamic equation for inertial ions has been used to derive the Burgers equation. The effects of two-electron-temperature and ion kinematic viscosity, which are found to significantly modify the basic features of the DIASWs, are discussed.

The Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) radiation has been investigated, passing through plasma column with concerning absorption effect on the IR-T1 tokamak. The intensity of second harmonic X-mode is used to investigate changes in electron temperature profile. The results show that radiation temperature (Trad) detected outside the plasma column is less than the electron temperature (Te) in the core. The radiation temperature can be directly interpreted as Te to about 3–10% reduction. This implies that optical thickness and electron density effects are more considerable at lower temperatures.

It is shown that turbulent interactions of two interpenetrating plasma clouds can cause seeding of the large scale-length magnetic field. This process becomes especially pronounced when clouds have the ions with different Z/M ratios.

Among the theoretical and experimental situations of interest in plasma physics are the waves that rise into the plasma and are strongly affected from the plasma parameters. Therefore, the development of strong relations between unperturbed and perturbed quantities is proved to exist both experimentally and theoretically. In the present paper, the mathematical solution ended in a relation between drift and perturbed velocities, which presupposes the perturbed velocity value to be very small in comparison with the drift velocity. However, the experiment has shown that the presupposition of the small value of the perturbations is not satisfied in many laboratory instances; as a result the use of the perturbation theory is limited. To surpass this difficulty, the big perturbed quantity was divided into small and equal parts, and by using the equation between unperturbed and perturbed velocities as a repeating relation, the perturbed theory may be extended and generalized beyond the small disturbances. In addition, calculations with a little change in the initial conditions were carried out, to determine when the plasma obtains chaotic behavior.

From the Apollo era of exploration, it was discovered that sunlight was scattered at the terminators giving rise to “horizon glow” and “streamers” above the lunar surface. Subsequent investigations have shown that the sunlight was most likely scattered by electrostatically charged dust grains originating from the surface. A renaissance is being observed currently in investigations of the Moon. The Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource missions (the latter jointly with India) are being prepared in Russia. Some of these missions will include investigations of lunar dust. Here we discuss the future experimental investigations of lunar dust within the missions of Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource. We consider the dusty plasma system over the lunar surface and determine the maximum height of dust rise. We describe mechanisms of formation of the dusty plasma system over the Moon and its main properties, determine distributions of electrons and dust over the lunar surface, and show a possibility of rising dust particles over the surface of the illuminated part of the Moon in the entire range of lunar latitudes. Finally, we discuss the effect of condensation of micrometeoriod substance during the expansion of the impact plume and show that this effect is important from the viewpoint of explanation of dust particle rise to high altitudes in addition to the dusty plasma effects.

Supersonic plasma flow around an object large compared with the Debye distance is treated using an isothermal gas dynamics model. The case of (initially) subsonic flow has been studied previously using this model, the motivation then being the use of Langmuir probes. In supersonic plasma flow Mach cones describing weak discontinuities rather than shock waves are predicted. A comparison has been made with particle-in-cell simulations carried out by Willis et al. (Willis, C. T. N., Allen, J. E., Coppins, M. and Bacharis, M. 2011 Phys. Rev. E, 84, 046410), where such Mach cones are observed. Other features cannot be explained by the isothermal gas dynamics model, these include the appearance, at high supersonic velocities, of an ion-free region downstream.

The rather general set of fluid equations with full curvature effects (Shukla and Weiland, Phys. Rev. A 40, 341 (1989)) has been modified to apply to the core and generalized to include also microtearing modes.

Emission spectroscopy measurements on a plasma representative of Titan atmosphere composition were obtained in the Inductively Coupled Plasma wind tunnel facility (VKI-Minitorch) at the von Karman Institute in Belgium. Temperatures ranged from 3600 to 5000 K, pressure was fixed at 300 mbar, and the molar composition was 1.9% CH4 and 98.1% N2. The high-pressure plasma was produced to obtain conditions close to equilibrium. In conjunction, line-by-line calculations have been carried out to assess the reliability of two distinct sets of molecular electronic transition moments, recently released, by predicting the radiative signature of high-temperature N2–CH4 plasma. The radiative transfer problem was solved by considering the plasma plume at local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions in an axisymmetric configuration. Comparisons between the synthetic and experimental spectra demonstrated good agreement for the CN Violet and high-wavelength CN Red bands, while some discrepancies were observed for the C2 Swan bands and low-wavelength CN Red bands.

A theoretical investigation on the nonlinear propagation of ion-acoustic waves in a degenerate dense plasma has been made by employing the reductive perturbation method. The Burger's equation has been derived, and numerically analyzed. The basic features of electrostatic shock structures have been examined. It has been shown that the plasma system under consideration supports the propagation of electrostatic shock structures. The implications of our results (obtained from this investigation) in compact astrophysical objects have been briefly discussed.