We determine the general dispersion relation for the propagation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in an astrophysical plasma by considering the effect of viscosity with an anisotropic pressure tensor. Basic MHD equations have been derived and linearized by the method of perturbation to develop the general form of the dispersion relation equation. Our result indicates that an astrophysical plasma with an anisotropic pressure tensor is stable in the presence of viscosity and a strong magnetic field at considerable wavelength.

A kinetic theory of the Debye sheath in the Tonks–Langmuir model of the plasma-wall transition layer with hot neutrals is presented. The plasma, consisting of Boltzmann-distributed electrons and singly charged ions, is in contact with an absorbing negative wall. Dependencies of electric-potential characteristics on neutrals temperature are investigated for the first time. The results can be generalized to other sheath models.

When a cold atomic gas is illuminated by a quasi-resonant laser beam, light-induced dipole–dipole correlations make the scattering of light a cooperative process. Once a fluid description is adopted for the atoms, many scattering properties are captured by the definition of a complex refractive index. The solution of the scattering problem is here presented for spherical atomic clouds of arbitrary density profiles, such as parabolic densities characteristic of ultra-cold clouds. A new solution for clouds with infinite boundaries is derived, which is particularly useful for the Gaussian densities of thermal atomic clouds. The presence of Mie resonances, a signature of the cloud acting as a cavity for the light, is discussed. These resonances leave their fingerprint in various observables such as the scattered intensity or in the radiation pressure force, and can be observed by tuning the frequency of the incident laser field or the atom number.

The CHIPIC code, a fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) code for modeling and simulations of high-power microwave (HPM) devices, is introduced in this paper. It consists of a two-dimensional (2D) code and a three-dimensional (3D) code. The 2D code can model and simulate HPM devices with symmetric structure on 2D Cartesian, cylindrical and polar grids, while the 3D code can model and simulate HPM devices on 3D Cartesian and cylindrical grids. The fields are calculated using the finite-difference time-domain scheme, and the particles are described by the PIC scheme. Various types of boundary conditions have also been implemented for different kinds of applications. In addition, the 3D code is specifically designed for high-performance modeling and computing. It uses the message passing interface and the open specifications for multiprocessing (OpenMP) for parallelization. Its parallel design ensures that it is capable of efficiently executing on a variety of architectures. In order to allow efficient use of parallel architectures, it provides automated partitioning and dynamic load balancing. Even though this code is still in development, it has successfully simulated various real-world HPM experimental devices. Simulation results on some typical HPM devices by using the CHIPIC code are given, which agree well with those obtained from some well-known PIC codes. Direction for future work is also presented.

The basic features of the nonlinear waves, which are associated with positive ion dynamics and dust charge fluctuation, have been investigated by employing the reductive perturbation method in a dusty electronegative plasma containing Boltzmann electrons, vortex-like negative ions, mobile positive ions, and charge fluctuating stationary dust (negatively charged). It has been observed that the basic features of the nonlinear waves (viz. amplitude, width, speed, etc.) in the plasma system under consideration have been significantly modified by the trapping parameter (introduced for vortex-like distribution of negative ions). The implications of the results (obtained from this investigation) in space and laboratory experiments have been briefly discussed.

The paper considers the erosion mechanism of operation of nano- and microsecond plasma opening switches (POSs). For this purpose, postulates of the well-known erosion model of the POS operation are reviewed and some remarks on its individual statements are discussed. A voltage scaling for a nanosecond switch with rarefied plasma (~1013 cm−3) is derived. It is shown that the peak voltage across the nanosecond switch on its opening is proportional to the switch conduction current. The formation of an erosion gap in a microsecond switch with high-density plasma (~1015 cm−3) is put to phenomenological analysis and a voltage scaling for the switch is obtained. It is found that in the microsecond switch, unlike the nanosecond switch, the peak voltage is inversely proportional to the switch conduction current.

An attempt is made to explain dark energy and dark matter of the expanding universe in terms of the zero point vacuum energy. This analysis is mainly limited to later stages of an observable nearly flat universe. It is based on a revised formulation of the spectral distribution of the zero point energy, for an ensemble in a defined statistical equilibrium having finite total energy density. The steady and dynamic states are studied for a spherical cloud of zero point energy photons. The ‘antigravitational’ force due to its pressure gradient then represents dark energy, and its gravitational force due to the energy density represents dark matter. Four fundamental results come out of the theory. First, the lack of emitted radiation becomes reconcilable with the concepts of dark energy and dark matter. Second, the crucial coincidence problem of equal orders of magnitude of mass density and vacuum energy density cannot be explained by the cosmological constant, but is resolved by the present variable concepts, which originate from the same photon gas balance. Third, the present approach becomes reconcilable with cosmical dimensions and with the radius of the observable universe. Fourth, the deduced acceleration of the expansion agrees with the observed one. In addition, mass polarity of a generalized gravitation law for matter and antimatter is proposed as a source of dark flow.

The streamer propagation in point-plane, non-uniform gaps under high applied electric fields, prior to the impact of primary streamer on cathode, is analyzed. The configuration used is an anode hyperboloid with 50-μm radius of curvature, and a flat plate as the cathode. The applied voltage is 130-kV direct current, and an initial electron is assumed to exist close to the anode in ambient air. The geometry used is a two-dimensional axisymmetry with a gap of 5 cm between the anode and the cathode. It is shown that the streamer is formed on the anode tip as expected, and midway toward the cathode, it separates into two streamers, the primary streamer that continues its propagation toward the cathode, and the branched streamer expanding radially toward the outer boundaries. The qualitative behavior of the discharge is analyzed in terms of streamer speeds, radial and axial electric fields, charged particle densities, and conductive currents. A branched streamer plasma structure was observed along the path of the primary plasma structure expanding radially outwards.

The propagation of dust ion-acoustic shock waves (DIASHWs) in an unmagnetized dissipative dusty plasma system consisting of inertial ions, non-inertial, non-extensive q-distributed electrons, and negatively charged stationary dust is investigated in bounded non-planar (cylindrical and spherical) geometry. A modified Burgers equation is derived and its numerical solution is obtained. It is found that the basic features of DIASHWs are significantly modified by the effects of electron non-extensivity and ion kinematic viscosity in bounded geometry. It is also shown that the propagation characteristics of non-planar DIASHWs in a non-extensive plasma are qualitatively different from those of planar ones.

Recently, a theoretical investigation of the collective and nonlocal quantum effects has been carried out within the framework of a quantum approach to the relativistic charged particle beam travelling in a cold, collisionless, strongly magnetized plasma. This has been done taking into account both the plasma wake field excitation and the quantum paraxial approximation. On the basis of this theory, here we carry out a preliminary study of the transverse effects experienced by a cold relativistic beam through a thin plasma slab (plasma lens). In the strongly nonlocal regime, in which the beam experiences a very strong focusing effect, the scheme of plasma lens is reviewed in terms of the wave description provided by the above quantum theory.

We point the rather unusual existence of a potential embedding in the Lorentz trajectory – charged particle trajectory in a magnetic field – of a one-dimensional matter wave dynamics on the macro-scale as demonstrated through one-dimensional matter wave interference effects on the macro-scale, as well as the observation of a curl-free vector potential in one dimension, also on the macro-scale. Such an embedding is a manifestation of the generation of the quantum modulation of the de Broglie wave of the particle along the magnetic field, arising concomitantly, with a scattering-induced transition across Landau levels in consequence of quantum entanglement between the parallel and perpendicular degrees of freedom.

The effects of dynamic temperature and electron–electron collisions on the elastic electron–ion collision are investigated in a collisional plasma. The second-order eikonal analysis and the velocity-dependent screening length are employed to derive the eikonal phase shift and eikonal cross section as functions of collision energy, electron collision frequency, Debye length, impact parameter, and thermal energy. It is interesting to find out that the electron–electron collision effect would be vanished; however, the dynamic temperature effect is included in the first-order approximation. We have found that the dynamic temperature effect strongly enhances the eikonal phase shift as well as the eikonal cross section for electron–ion collision since the dynamic screening increases the effective shielding distance. In addition, the detailed characteristic behavior of the dynamic screening function is also discussed.

Nonlinear dust-acoustic (DA) shock waves in coupled dusty plasmas with negative dust grains and kappa-distributed electrons are discussed. Using a generalized hydrodynamic model, the dispersion relation and the Korteweg–de Vries-Burger (KdVB) equation for low-frequency DA modes in a strongly coupled dusty plasma are derived. The dependence of shock waves on various plasma parameters is then explored. A solitonic profile may be converted into a shock structure when correlation among dust particles becomes stronger. The amplitude as well as the steepness of shock waves increases with increasing the value of the spectral index k.

Tsallis q-non-extensive distributions have recently found favor in describing the presence of energetic particles and their influences on several plasma modes, notably electrostatic solitons. Here attention is drawn to ambiguities and subtleties in the superextensive and subextensive ranges in q, which are not always recognized in the literature, particularly in numerical studies.

We have built a code to numerically solve the Riemann problem in ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) for an arbitrary initial condition to investigate a variety of solutions more thoroughly. The code can handle not only regular solutions, in which no intermediate shocks are involved, but also all types of non-regular solutions if any. As a first application, we explored the neighborhood of the initial condition that was first picked up by Brio and Wu (1988) (Brio, M. and Wu, C. C. 1988 An upwind differencing scheme for the equation of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. J. Comput. Phys. 75, 400–422) and has been frequently employed in the literature as a standard problem to validate numerical codes. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that there will always be a regular solution, we found an initial condition for which there is no regular solution but a non-regular one. The latter solution has only regular solutions in its neighborhood and actually sits on the boundary of regular solutions. This implies that the regular solutions are not sufficient to solve the ideal MHD Riemann problem and suggests that at least some types of non-regular solutions are physical. We also demonstrate that the non-regular solutions are not unique. In fact, we found for the Brio and Wu initial condition that there are uncountably many non-regular solutions. This poses an intriguing question: Why a particular non-regular solution is always obtained in numerical simulations? This has important ramifications to the discussion of which intermediate shocks are really admissible.

Fast-electron beam stopping mechanisms in media ranging from solid to warm dense matter have been investigated experimentally and numerically. Laser-driven fast electrons have been transported through solid Al targets and shock-compressed Al and plastic foam targets. Their propagation has been diagnosed via rear-side optical self-emission and Kα X-rays from tracer layers. Comparison between measurements and simulations shows that the transition from collision-dominated to resistive field-dominated energy loss occurs for a fast-electron current density ~5 × 1011 A cm−2. The respective increases in the stopping power with target density and resistivity have been detected in each regime. Self-guided propagation over 200μm has been observed in radially compressed targets due to ~1kT magnetic fields generated by resistivity gradients at the converging shock front.

The instability of dust acoustic waves driven by electrons and ions with different drift velocities in dusty non-extensive plasma is investigated based on the kinetic theory. The non-extensivity parameters of non-extensive distribution for three plasma components are different from each other. The instability growth rate is shown to be dependent on the non-extensivity parameters as well as on the ion--electron number density ratio. In the extensive limit (q=1), the result in Maxwellian distribution plasma is recovered. The instability growth rate is found to decrease as the population of suprathermal electrons and dust grains increases, but it enhances when the number of suprathermal ions increases and electron density decreases.