arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. Stenflo.
A new class of exact electrostatic solutions of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations based on the Jeans's theorem is proposed for studying the evolution and properties of two-dimensional anisotropic plasmas that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In particular, the free expansion of a slab of electron-ion plasma into vacuum is investigated.
The appearance of rogue waves is well known in oceanographics, optics, and cold matter systems. Here we show a possibility for the existence of atmospheric rogue waves.
By using the quantum hydrodynamic and Maxwell equations, we derive nonlinear electron-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), Hall-MHD, and dust Hall-MHD equations for dense quantum magnetoplasmas. The nonlinear equations include the electromagnetic, the electron pressure gradient, as well as the quantum electron tunneling and electron spin forces. They are useful for investigating a number of wave phenomena including linear and nonlinear electromagnetic waves, as well as three-dimensional electromagnetic wave turbulence spectra arising from the mode coupling processes in dense magnetoplasmas.
We present a theoretical investigation of the excitation of multiple electrostatic wakefields by the ponderomotive force of a short electromagnetic pulse propagating through a dense plasma. It is found that the inclusion of the quantum statistical pressure and quantum electron tunneling effects can qualitatively change the classical behavior of the wakefield. In addition to the well known plasma oscillation wakefield, with a wavelength of the order of the electron skin depth, which in a dense plasma is of the order of several nanometers, wakefields in dense plasmas with a shorter wavelength are also excited. The wakefields can trap electrons and accelerate them to extremely high energies over nanoscales.
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have recently been recognized as an important future technique for microelectronics. Such SPPs have been studied using classical theory. However, current state-of-the-art experiments are rapidly approaching nanoscales, and quantum effects can then become important. Here we study the properties of quantum SPPs at the interface between an electron quantum plasma and a dielectric material. It is shown that the effect of quantum broadening of the transition layer is most important. In particular, the damping of SPPs does not vanish even in the absence of collisional dissipation, thus posing a fundamental size limit for plasmonic devices. Consequences and applications of our results are pointed out.
The nonlinear propagation of a circularly polarized electromagnetic (CPEM) wave in a strongly magnetized electron-positron-ion plasma is investigated. Two coupled equations describing the interaction between a high-frequency CPEM wave and the low-frequency electrostatic wake field are derived. It is found that the generation of the wake fields depends on the presence of the ion species. The wake field generation in turn leads to de-acceleration and frequency down conversion of the electromagnetic pulse.
Tunneling of microwaves through a smooth barrier in a transmission line is considered. In contrast to standard wave barriers, we study the case where the dielectric permittivity is positive, and the barrier is caused by the inhomogeneous dielectric profile. It is found that reflectionless, superluminal tunneling can take place for waves with a finite spectral width. The consequences of these findings are discussed, and an experimental setup testing our predictions is proposed.
The existence of magnetosonic solitons in dusty plasmas is investigated. The nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic equations for a warm dusty magnetoplasma are thus derived. A solution of the nonlinear equations is presented. It is shown that, due to the presence of dust, static structures are allowed. This is in sharp contrast to the formation of the so called shocklets in usual magnetoplasmas. A comparatively small number of dust particles can thus drastically alter the behavior of the nonlinear structures in magnetized plasmas.
The three-dimensional instability of two coupled electromagnetic waves in an unmagnetized plasma is investigated theoretically and numerically. In the regime of two-plasmon decay, where one pump wave frequency is approximately twice the electron plasma frequency, we find that the coupled pump waves give rise to enhanced instability with wave vectors between those of the two beams. In the case of ion parametric decay instability, where the pump wave decays into one Langmuir wave and one ion acoustic wave, the instability regions are added with no distinct amplification. Our investigation can be useful in interpreting laser-plasma as well as ionospheric heating experiments.
The theory for large amplitude circularly polarized waves propagating along an external magnetic field is extended in order to include also vacuum polarization effects. A general dispersion relation, which unites previous results, is derived.
We consider reflection of electromagnetic waves from layered structures with various dielectric and magnetic properties, including metamaterials. Assuming periodic variations in the permittivity, we find that the reflection is in general anomalous. In particular, we note that the specular reflection vanishes and that the incident energy is totally reflected in the backward direction, when the conditions for resonant excitation of leaking surface waves are fulfilled.
The modulational instability of nonlinearly interacting spatially incoherent Stokes waves is analyzed. Starting from a pair of nonlinear Schroedinger equations, we derive a coupled set of wave-kinetic equations by using the Wigner transform technique. It is shown that the partial coherence of the interacting waves induces novel effects on the dynamics of crossing sea states.
Nonlinear interactions involving electrostatic upper-hybrid (UH), ion-cyclotron (IC), lower-hybrid (LH), and Alfven waves in quantum magnetoplasmas are considered. For this purpose, the quantum hydrodynamical equations are used to derive the governing equations for nonlinearly coupled UH, IC, LH, and Alfven waves. The equations are then Fourier analyzed to obtain nonlinear dispersion relations, which admit both decay and modulational instabilities of the UH waves at quantum scales. The growth rates of the instabilities are presented. They can be useful in applications of our work to diagnostics in laboratory and astrophysical settings.
A kinetic theory for radiation interacting with sound waves in an ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasma is developed. It is shown that the effect of a spatial spectral broadening of the electromagnetic pulse is to introduce a reduction of the growth rates for the decay and modulational instabilities. Such spectral broadening could be due to a finite pulse coherence length, or through the use of random phase filters, and would stabilize the propagation of electromagnetic pulses.
We consider the modulational instability of nonlinearly interacting two-dimensional waves in deep water, which are described by a pair of two-dimensional coupled nonlinear Schroedinger equations. We derive a nonlinear dispersion relation. The latter is numerically analyzed to obtain the regions and the associated growth rates of the modulational instability. Furthermore, we follow the long term evolution of the latter by means of computer simulations of the governing nonlinear equations and demonstrate the formation of localized coherent wave envelopes. Our results should be useful for understanding the formation and nonlinear propagation characteristics of large amplitude freak waves in deep water.
The resonant coupling between Alfvén waves is reconsidered. New results are found for cold plasmas there temperature effects are negligible.
We investigate the nonlinear interaction between two laser beams in a plasma in the weakly nonlinear and relativistic regime. The evolution of the laser beams is governed by two nonlinear Schroedinger equations that are coupled with the slow plasma density response. We study the growth rates of the Raman forward and backward scattering instabilities as well of the Brillouin and self-focusing/modulational instabilities. The nonlinear evolution of the instabilities is investigated by means of direct simulations of the time-dependent system of nonlinear equations.
The resonant interaction between kinetic Alfvén and ion-acoustic waves is considered using the Hall-MHD theory. The results of previous authors are generalized to cover both finite Larmor radius as well as the ideal MHD results. It is found that the three wave coupling is strongest when the wavelength is comparable to the ion-sound gyroradius. Applications of our work to weak turbulence theories as well as to the heating of the solar corona are pointed out.