arXiv subjects

P. J. Morrison

Publications and source records attributed to P. J. Morrison.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Theory and applications of the Vlasov equation

Forty articles have been recently published in EPJD as contributions to the topical issue "Theory and applications of the Vlasov equation". The aim of this topical issue was to provide a forum for the presentation of a broad variety of scientific results involving the Vlasov equation. In this editorial, after some introductory notes, a brief account is given of the main points addressed in these papers and of the perspectives they open.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Hamiltonian closures for fluid models with four moments by dimensional analysis

Fluid reductions of the Vlasov-Amp{è}re equations that preserve the Hamiltonian structure of the parent kinetic model are investigated. Hamiltonian closures using the first four moments of the Vlasov distribution are obtained, and all closures provided by a dimensional analysis procedure for satisfying the Jacobi identity are identified. Two Hamiltonian models emerge, for which the explicit closures are given, along with their Poisson brackets and Casimir invariants.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2014

Hamiltonian formulation of the gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell equations

The gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell equations are cast as an infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian system. The gyrokinetic Poisson bracket is remarkably simple and similar to the Morrison-Marsden-Weinstein bracket for the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. By identifying many of the bracket's Casimirs, this work enables (i) the derivation of gyrokinetic equilibrium variational principles and (ii) the application of the energy-Casimir method and the method of dynamically-accessible variations to study stability properties of gyrokinetic equilibria.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

Inertial magnetohydrodynamics

A version of extended magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) that incorporates electron inertia is obtained by constructing an action principle. Unlike MHD which freezes in magnetic flux, the present theory freezes in an alternative flux related to the electron canonical momentum. The associated Hamiltonian formulation is derived and reduced models that have previously been used to describe collisionless reconnection are obtained.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

The action principle for generalized fluid motion including gyroviscosity

A general set of fluid equations that allow for energy-conserving momentum transport by gyroscopic motion of fluid elements is obtained. The equations are produced by a class of action principles that yield a large subset of the known fluid and magnetofluid models, including gyroviscosity. Analysis of the action principle yields broad, model-independent results regarding the conservation laws of energy and linear and angular momenta. The formalism is illustrated by studying fluid models with intrinsic angular momentum that may appear in the contexts of condensed matter, biological, and other areas of physics.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

Action Principles for Extended MHD Models

The general, non-dissipative, two-fluid model in plasma physics is Hamiltonian, but this property is sometimes lost or obscured in the process of deriving simplified (or reduced) two-fluid or one-fluid models from the two-fluid equations of motion. To ensure that the reduced models are Hamiltonian, we start with the general two-fluid action functional, and make all the approximations, changes of variables, and expansions directly within the action context. The resulting equations are then mapped to the Eulerian fluid variables using a novel nonlocal Lagrange-Euler map. Using this method, we recover Lüst's general two-fluid model, extended MHD, Hall MHD, and electron MHD from a unified framework. The variational formulation allows us to use Noether's theorem to derive conserved quantities for each symmetry of the action.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

On energy conservation in extended magnetohydrodynamics

A systematic study of energy conservation for extended magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models that include Hall terms and electron inertia is performed. It is observed that commonly used models do not conserve energy in the ideal limit, i.e., when viscosity and resistivity are neglected. In particular, a term in the momentum equation that is often neglected is seen to be needed for conservation of energy.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

Hamiltonian and action formalisms for two-dimensional gyroviscous MHD

A general procedure for constructing action principles for continuum models via a generalization of Hamilton's principle of mechanics is described. Through the procedure, an action principle for a gyroviscous magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model is constructed. The model is shown to agree with a reduced version of Braginskii's fluid equations. The construction reveals the origin of the gyromap, a device used to derive previous gyrofluid models. Also, a systematic reduction procedure is presented for obtaining the Hamiltonian structure in terms of the noncanonical Poisson bracket. The construction procedure yields a class of Casimir invariants, which are then used to variational principles for equilibrium equations with flow and gyroviscosity. The procedure for obtaining reduced fluid models with gyroviscosity is also described.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

A hierarchy of noncanonical Hamiltonian systems: circulation laws in an extended phase space

The dynamics of an ideal fluid or plasma is constrained by topological invariants such as the circulation of (canonical) momentum or, equivalently, the flux of the vorticity or magnetic fields. In the Hamiltonian formalism, topological invariants restrict the orbits to submanifolds of the phase space. While the coadjoint orbits have a natural symplectic structure, the global geometry of the degenerate (constrained) Poisson manifold can be very complex. Some invariants are represented by the center of the Poisson algebra (i.e., the Casimir elements such as the helicities), and then, the global structure of phase space is delineated by Casimir leaves. However, a general constraint is not necessarily integrable, which precludes the existence of an appropriate Casimir element; the circulation is an example of such an invariant. In this work, we formulate a systematic method to embed a Hamiltonian system in an extended phase space; we introduce mock fields and extend the Poisson algebra so that the mock fields are Lie-dragged by the flow vector. A mock field defines a new Casimir element, a cross helicity, which represents topological constraints including the circulation. Unearthing a Casimir element brings about immense advantage in the study of dynamics and equilibria -- the so-called energy-Casimir method becomes ready available. Yet, a mock field does not a priori have a physical meaning. Here we proffer an interpretation of a Casimir element obtained, e.g., by such a construction as an adiabatic invariant associated with a hidden "microscopic" angle variable, and in this way give the mock field a physical meaning. We proceed further and consider a perturbation of the Hamiltonian by a canonical pair, composed of the Casimir element and the angle, that causes the topological constraint to be unfrozen. The theory is applied to the tearing modes of MHD.

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Experimental determination of radiated internal wave power without pressure field data

We present a method to determine, using only velocity field data, the time-averaged energy flux $\left<\boldsymbol{J}\right>$ and total radiated power $P$ for two-dimensional internal gravity waves. Both $\left<\boldsymbol{J}\right>$ and $P$ are determined from expressions involving only a scalar function, the stream function $ψ$. We test the method using data from a direct numerical simulation for tidal flow of a stratified fluid past a knife edge. The results for the radiated internal wave power given by the stream function method agree to within 0.5% with results obtained using pressure and velocity data from the numerical simulation. The results for the radiated power computed from the stream function agree well with power computed from the velocity and pressure if the starting point for the stream function computation is on a solid boundary, but if a boundary point is not available, care must be taken to choose an appropriate starting point. We also test the stream function method by applying it to laboratory data for tidal flow past a knife edge, and the results are found to agree with the direct numerical simulation. Supplementary Material includes a Matlab code with a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be used to compute the energy flux and power from any two-dimensional velocity field data.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2013

Continuum Hamiltonian Hopf Bifurcation II

Building on the development of [MOR13], bifurcation of unstable modes that emerge from continuous spectra in a class of infinite-dimensional noncanonical Hamiltonian systems is investigated. Of main interest is a bifurcation termed the continuum Hamiltonian Hopf (CHH) bifurcation, which is an infinite-dimensional analog of the usual Hamiltonian Hopf (HH) bifurcation. Necessary notions pertaining to spectra, structural stability, signature of the continuous spectra, and normal forms are described. The theory developed is applicable to a wide class of 2+1 noncanonical Hamiltonian matter models, but the specific example of the Vlasov-Poisson system linearized about homogeneous (spatially independent) equilibria is treated in detail. For this example, structural (in)stability is established in an appropriate functional analytic setting, and two kinds of bifurcations are considered, one at infinite and one at finite wavenumber. After defining and describing the notion of dynamical accessibility, Kreĭn-like theorems regarding signature and bifurcation are proven. In addition, a canonical Hamiltonian example, composed of a negative energy oscillator coupled to a heat bath, is treated and our development is compared to pervious work in this context. A careful counting of eigenvalues, with and without symmetry, is undertaken, leading to the definition of a degenerate continuum steady state (CSS) bifurcation. It is described how the CHH and CSS bifurcations can be viewed as linear normal forms associated with the nonlinear single-wave model described in [BAL13], which is a companion to the present work and that of [MOR13].

math-ph↗

arXiv2013

Hamiltonian Magnetohydrodynamics: Lagrangian, Eulerian, and Dynamically Accessible Stability - Theory

Stability conditions of magnetized plasma flows are obtained by exploiting the Hamiltonian structure of the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations and, in particular, by using three kinds of energy principles. First, the Lagrangian variable energy principle is described and sufficient stability conditions are presented. Next, plasma flows are described in terms of Eulerian variables and the noncanonical Hamiltonian formulation of MHD is exploited. For symmetric equilibria, the energy-Casimir principle is expanded to second order and sufficient conditions for stability to symmetric perturbation are obtained. Then, dynamically accessible variations, i.e. variations that explicitly preserve invariants of the system, are introduced and the respective energy principle is considered. General criteria for stability are obtained, along with comparisons between the three different approaches.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

Nonlinear variational method for predicting fast collisionless magnetic reconnection

A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges by using a two-fluid model for cold ions and electrons. Explosive growth of the tearing mode enabled by electron inertia is analytically estimated by using an energy principle with a nonlinear displacement map. Decrease of the potential energy in the nonlinear regime (where the island width exceeds the electron skin depth) is found to be steeper than in the linear regime, resulting in accelerated reconnection. Release of potential energy by such a fluid displacement leads to unsteady and strong convective flow, which is not damped by the small dissipation effects in high-temperature tokamak plasmas. Direct numerical simulation in slab geometry substantiates the theoretical prediction of the nonlinear growth.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

Unfreezing Casimir invariants: singular perturbations giving rise to forbidden instabilities

The infinite-dimensional mechanics of fluids and plasmas can be formulated as "noncanonical" Hamiltonian systems on a phase space of Eulerian variables. Singularities of the Poisson bracket operator produce singular Casimir elements that foliate the phase space, imposing topological constraints on the dynamics. Here we proffer a physical interpretation of Casimir elements as \emph{adiabatic invariants} ---upon coarse graining microscopic angle variables, we obtain a macroscopic hierarchy on which the separated action variables become adiabatic invariants. On reflection, a Casimir element may be \emph{unfrozen} by recovering a corresponding angle variable; such an increase in the number of degrees of freedom is, then, formulated as a \emph{singular perturbation}. As an example, we propose a canonization of the resonant-singularity of the Poisson bracket operator of the linearized magnetohydrodynamics equations, by which the ideal obstacle (resonant Casimir element) constraining the dynamics is unfrozen, giving rise to a tearing-mode instability.

math-ph↗

arXiv2013

Pattern formation in Hamiltonian systems with continuous spectra; a normal-form single-wave model

Pattern formation in biological, chemical and physical problems has received considerable attention, with much attention paid to dissipative systems. For example, the Ginzburg--Landau equation is a normal form that describes pattern formation due to the appearance of a single mode of instability in a wide variety of dissipative problems. In a similar vein, a certain "single-wave model" arises in many physical contexts that share common pattern forming behavior. These systems have Hamiltonian structure, and the single-wave model is a kind of Hamiltonian mean-field theory describing the patterns that form in phase space. The single-wave model was originally derived in the context of nonlinear plasma theory, where it describes the behavior near threshold and subsequent nonlinear evolution of unstable plasma waves. However, the single-wave model also arises in fluid mechanics, specifically shear-flow and vortex dynamics, galactic dynamics, the XY and Potts models of condensed matter physics, and other Hamiltonian theories characterized by mean field interaction. We demonstrate, by a suitable asymptotic analysis, how the single-wave model emerges from a large class of nonlinear advection-transport theories. An essential ingredient for the reduction is that the Hamiltonian system has a continuous spectrum in the linear stability problem, arising not from an infinite spatial domain but from singular resonances along curves in phase space whereat wavespeeds match material speeds (wave-particle resonances in the plasma problem, or critical levels in fluid problems). The dynamics of the continuous spectrum is manifest as the phenomenon of Landau damping when the system is ... Such dynamical phenomena have been rediscovered in different contexts, which is unsurprising in view of the normal-form character of the single-wave model.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2013

Rank change in Poisson dynamical systems

It is shown in this paper how a connection may be made between the symmetry generators of the Hamiltonian (or potential) invariant under a symmetry group $G$, and the subcasimirs that come about when the rank of the Poisson structure of a dynamical system drops by an even integer. This {\em kinematics-dynamics} connection is made by using the algebraic geometry of the orbit space in the vicinity of rank change, and the extra null eigenvectors of the mass matrix (Hessian with respect to symmetry generators) of the Hamiltonian (or potential). Some physical interpretations of this point of view include a control-theoretic prescription to study stability on various symplectic leaves of the Poisson structure. Methods of Invariant Theory are utilized to provide parametrization for the leaves of a Poisson dynamical system for the case where a compact Lie group acts properly on the phase space, which is assumed to be modeled by Poisson geometry.

math-ph↗

arXiv2013

Response to Comment on `Undamped electrostatic plasma waves' [Phys. Plasmas 19, 092103 (2012)]

Numerical and experimental evidence is given for the occurrence of the plateau states and concomitant corner modes proposed in \cite{valentini12}. It is argued that these states provide a better description of reality for small amplitude off-dispersion disturbances than the conventional Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal or cnoidal states such as those proposed in \cite{comment}

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

Deformation of vortex patches by boundaries

The deformation of two-dimensional vortex patches in the vicinity of fluid boundaries is investigated. The presence of a boundary causes an initially circular patch of uniform vorticity to deform. Sufficiently far away from the boundary, the deformed shape is well approximated by an ellipse. This leading order elliptical deformation is investigated via the elliptic moment model of Melander, Zabusky & Styczek [M. V. Melander, N. J. Zabusky & A. S. Styczek, J. Fluid. Mech., 167, 95 (1986)]. When the boundary is straight, the centre of the elliptic patch remains at a constant distance from the boundary, and the motion is integrable. Furthermore, since the straining flow acting on the patch is constant in time, the problem is that of an elliptic vortex patch in constant strain, which was analysed by Kida [S. Kida, J. Phys. Soc. Japan, 50, 3517 (1981)]. For more complicated boundary shapes, such as a square corner, the motion is no longer integrable. Instead, there is an adiabatic invariant for the motion. This adiabatic invariant arises due to the separation in times scales between the relatively rapid time scale associated with the rotation of the patch and the slower time scale associated with the self-advection of the patch along the boundary. The interaction of a vortex patch with a circular island is also considered. Without a background flow, conservation of angular impulse implies that the motion is again integrable. The addition of an irrotational flow past the island can drive the patch towards the boundary, leading to the possibility of large deformations and breakup.

physics.flu-dyn↗