SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Arunava Das

Publications and source records attributed to Arunava Das.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Dispersive Properties of Plasma Diffraction Gratings: Towards Plasma-Based Laser Pulse Compression

The standard architecture for a high-peak-power femtosecond laser is chirped pulse amplification using diffraction gratings for compression; the damage threshold of the compression gratings limits current lasers to multi-petawatt peak power. Plasma gratings have orders-of-magnitude higher damage tolerance than conventional optics, so plasma gratings with sufficiently high optical quality could allow the construction of ultra-high-power femtosecond lasers. Here, we present experimental measurements of the angular dispersion, angular bandwidth, and diffraction angles of ionization-based plasma transmission gratings and show that both the dispersive and the diffractive properties of these gratings are in close agreement with optical theory and simulations. Gratings with a period of 10.2 microns are found to have an angular dispersion of approximately 0.005 degrees/nm. The dispersion and bandwidth of these gratings suggest plausible designs for a plasma-grating-based compressor and indicate a pathway to compact lasers with petawatt to exawatt peak power.

physics.plasm-ph

Lyapunov spectra and fluctuation relations: Insights from the Galerkin-truncated Burgers equation

The imposition of a global constraint of the conservation of total kinetic energy on a forced-dissipative Burgers equation yields a governing equation that is invariant under the time-reversal symmetry operation, $\{\mathcal{T}: t \to -t; u \to -u \}$, where $u$ is the velocity field. Moreover, the dissipation term gets strongly modified, as the viscosity is no longer a constant, but a fluctuating, state dependent quantity, which can even become negative in certain dynamical regimes. Despite these differences, the statistical properties of different dynamical regimes of the time-reversible Burgers equation and the standard forced-dssipative Burgers equation are equivalent, \`a la Gallavotti's conjecture of \textit{equivalence of nonequilibrium ensembles}. We show that the negative viscosity events occur only in the thermalized regime described by the time-reversible equation. This quasi-equilibrium regime is examined by calculating the local Lyapunov spectra and fluctuation relations. A pairing symmetry among the spectra is observed, indicating that the dynamics is chaotic and has an attractor spanning the entire phase space of the system. The violations of the second law of thermodynamics are found to be in accordance with the fluctuation relations, namely the Gallavotti-Cohen relation based on the phase-space contraction rate and the Cohen-Searles fluctuation relation based on the energy production rate. It is also argued that these violations are associated with the effects of the Galerkin-truncation, the latter is responsible for the thermalization.

nlin.CD

Poles, Shocks and Tygers: The Time-reversible Burgers equation

We construct a formally time-reversible, one-dimensional forced Burgers equation by imposing a global constraint of energy conservation, wherein the constant viscosity is modified to a fluctuating state-dependent dissipation coefficient. The system exhibits dynamical properties which bear strong similarities with those observed for the Burgers equation and can be understood using the dynamics of the poles, shocks, and truncation effects, such as tygers. A complex interplay of these give rise to interesting statistical regimes ranging from hydrodynamic behavior to a completely thermalized warm phase. The end of the hydrodynamic regime is associated with the appearance of a shock in the solution and a continuous transition leading to a truncation-dependent state. Beyond this, the truncation effects such as tygers and the appearance of secondary discontinuity at the resonance point in the solution strongly influence the statistical properties. These disappear at the second transition, at which the global quantities exhibit a jump and attain values that are consistent with the establishment of a quasiequilibrium state characterized by energy equipartition among the Fourier modes. Our comparative analysis shows that the macroscopic statistical properties of the formally time-reversible system and the Burgers equation are equivalent in all the regimes, irrespective of the truncation effects, and this equivalence is not just limited to the hydrodynamic regime, thereby further strengthening the Gallavotti's equivalence conjecture. The properties of the system are further examined by inspecting the complex space singularities in the velocity field of the Burgers equation. Furthermore, an effective theory is proposed to describe the discontinuous transition.

physics.flu-dyn