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Seth Putterman

Publications and source records attributed to Seth Putterman.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Compressed Ultrafast Photography of Plasmas Formed from Laser Breakdown of Dense Gases Reveals that Internal Processes Dominate Evolution at Early Times

Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) is applied to laser breakdown in argon and xenon under pressures up to 40atm to obtain 2D images of the plasma dynamics of single events with a spatial resolution of 250x100 pixels and an equivalent frame rate of 500 GHz. Light emission as a function of position and time is measured through red, green, blue, and broad-band filters. The spatially encoded and temporally sheared image normally used in CUP is now enhanced by the introduction of a constraint given by a spatially integrated and temporally sheared unencoded signal. The data yield insights into the temperature, opacity, the plasma formation process, and heat flow within the plasma and to the surrounding ambient gas. Contours of constant emission indicate that plasmas formed from sufficiently dense gas contract rather than expand despite having a temperature of a few eV. Plasmas formed from relatively low pressure gases such as 7atm argon can radiate with emissivity near unity. Modeling transport and opacity as arising from inverse Bremsstrahlung requires a degree of ionization that strongly exceeds expectations based on Saha's equation even as customarily modified to include density and screening. According to this model, both electrons and ions are strongly coupled with a plasma coefficient >1. During the first few nanoseconds after formation, Stefan-Boltzmann radiation and thermal conduction to ambient gas are too weak to explain the observed cooling rates, suggesting that transport within the plasma dominates its evolution. Yet, thermal conduction within the plasma itself is also small as indicated by the persistence of thermal inhomogeneities for far longer timescales. The fact that plasma is isolated from the surroundings makes it an excellent system for the study of the equation of state and hydrodynamics of such dense plasmas via the systems and techniques described.

physics.plasm-ph

Simulation of the high Mach number motion for bubble collapse in a compressible Euler fluid using Basilisk

We examine an extreme case of experimentally realizable sonoluminescence, where spherical cavities have an initial radius that is $10$ to $20$ times their ambient radius and change their radius by a factor of over $100$ during the collapse. Among the many physical processes at play, we focus on fluid compressibility, modeled using the Tait-Murnaghan equation of state for a homentropic Euler fluid. To capture such extreme motion, with Mach numbers relative to ambient sound speed greater than one during the final stages of implosion, requires methods beyond the classic approaches of Rayleigh and Gilmore. In this direction, we applied an all-Mach solver developed in the Basilisk framework, actively used to model bubble dynamics. To capture high Mach number motion and resolve dynamics in the sonoluminescence regime, we employed the well-established uniform bubble approximation for the ideal gas inside the bubble. Within this approximation, the all-Mach solver achieved numerically converging results describing the evolution of the bubble wall $R(t)$. Although compressibility slows down the collapse, these bubbles reach velocities exceeding the ambient speed of sound of the surrounding fluid. Our method works for various fluids and is applied to liquid lithium as well as water. Our results reproduce the equation-of-state-dependent asymptotic power-law region predicted by analytic calculations for water and liquid lithium in the case of an empty cavity. When the cavity is filled with an ideal gas, the transition to Mach number greater than one in liquid lithium occurs later in the collapse than for water, making liquid lithium a possible candidate for achieving greater concentration of energy density. Furthermore, an outgoing shock wave, which can diagnose cavitation in opaque fluids such as liquid lithium, is captured without implementing an ad hoc construction algorithm.

physics.flu-dyn

Variational principles for the hydrodynamics of the classical one-component plasma

Hydrodynamic equations for a one-component plasma are derived as a generalization of the Euler equations to include the effects of the long-range Coulomb interaction. By using a variational principle, these equations self-consistently unify thermodynamics, dispersion laws, nonlinear motion, and conservation laws. In the moderate and strong coupling limits, it is argued that these equations work down to the length scale of the average interparticle spacing. Closure and self-consistency of these nonlocal equations are achieved via the implementation of a variational principle. Hydrodynamic equations are evaluated in both the Eulerian frame, where the dependent variables depend on the position in the laboratory, and the Lagrangian frame, where they depend on the position in some reference state, such as the initial position. Each frame has its advantages and our final theory combines elements of both. The properties of longitudinal and transverse dispersion laws are calculated for the hydrodynamic equations. A simple step function approximation for the pair distribution function is used that allows for simple calculations that reveal the structure of the equations of motion. The obtained dispersion laws are compared to molecular dynamics simulations and the theory of quasilocalized charge approximation. The action, which gives excellent agreement for both longitudinal and transverse dispersion laws for a wide range of coupling strengths, is elucidated. Agreement with numerical experiments shows that such a hydrodynamic approach can be used to accurately describe a one-component plasma at very small length scales comparable to the average interparticle spacing. The validity of this approach suggests considering nonlinear flows and other systems with long-range interactions in the future.

physics.plasm-ph

Power law singularity for cavity collapse in a compressible Euler fluid with Tait-Murnaghan equation of state

Motivated by the high energy focusing found in rapidly collapsing bubbles that is relevant to implosion processes that concentrate energy density, such as sonoluminescence, we consider a calculation of an empty cavity collapse in a compressible Euler fluid. We review and then use the method based on similarity theory that was previously used to compute the power law exponent $n$ for the collapse of an empty cavity in water during the late stage of the collapse. We extend this calculation by considering different fluids surrounding the cavity, all of which are parametrized by the Tait-Murnaghan equation of state through parameter $\gamma$. As a result, we obtain the dependence of $n$ on $\gamma$ for a wide range of $\gamma$, and indeed see that the collapse is sensitive to the equation of state of an outside fluid.

physics.flu-dyn

Coherent Qubit Measurement in Cavity-Transmon Quantum Systems

A measurement of the time between quantum jumps implies the capability to measure the next jump. During the time between jumps the quantum system is not evolving in a closed or unitary manner. While the wave function maintains phase coherence it evolves according to a non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonian. So under null measurement the timing of the next quantum jump can change by very many orders of magnitude when compared to rates obtained by multiplying lifetimes with occupation probabilities obtained via unitary transformation. The theory developed in 1987 for atomic fluorescence is here extended to transitions in transmon qubits. These systems differ from atoms in that they are read out with a harmonic cavity whose resonance is determined by the state of the qubit. We extend our analysis of atomic fluorescence to this infinite level system by treating the cavity as a quantum system. We find that next photon statistics is highly non exponential and when implemented will enable faster readout, such as on time scales shorter than the decay time of the cavity. Commonly used heterodyne measurements are applied on time scales longer than the cavity lifetime. The overlap between the next photon theory and the theory of heterodyne measurement which are described according to the Stochastic Schroedinger Equation is elucidated. In the limit of large dispersion the intrinsic error for next jump detection -- at short time -- tends to zero. Whereas for short time dyne detection the error remains finite for all values of dispersion.

quant-ph

Regimes of Coherent Intermittency in the Next Quantum Jump of a Multilevel System

In an externally driven multilevel quantum system observation that the NEXT jump has not yet happened affects its future development. In previous work [Phys. Rev. A36, 929 (1987)] it was shown that this class of measurement makes it possible to observe remarkably long dark intervals -- or intermittency -- in the atomic fluorescence of an atom with 3 or more levels. Those calculations were carried out when the driven oscillations or Rabi flopping between the ground state and a strongly fluorescing state were fast compared to its lifetime. In systems with solid state Qubits the accessible parameter space is generally limited to the regime where oscillations are slower than the lifetime. In this paper we evaluate intermittency in atomic transitions, due to measurements with a null result, in this limit. During the dark periods the wave function of the continuously measured multilevel system is coherent.

quant-ph

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Sonoluminescence: Modeling, Algorithms and Simulation Results

Sonoluminescence is the phenomena of light emission from a collapsing gas bubble in a liquid. Theoretical explanations of this extreme energy focusing are controversial and difficult to validate experimentally. We propose to use molecular dynamics simulations of the collapsing gas bubble to clarify the energy focusing mechanism, and provide insight into the mechanism of light emission. In this paper, we model the interior of a collapsing noble gas bubble as a hard sphere gas driven by a spherical piston boundary moving according to the Rayleigh-Plesset equation. We also include a simple treatment of ionization effects in the gas at high temperatures. By using fast, tree-based algorithms, we can exactly follow the dynamics of million particle systems during the collapse. Our results clearly show strong energy focusing within the bubble, including the formation of shocks, strong ionization, and temperatures in the range of 50,000---500,000 degrees Kelvin. Our calculations show that the gas-liquid boundary interaction has a strong effect on the internal gas dynamics. We also estimate the duration of the light pulse from our model, which predicts that it scales linearly with the ambient bubble radius. As the number of particles in a physical sonoluminescing bubble is within the foreseeable capability of molecular dynamics simulations we also propose that fine scale sonoluminescence experiments can be viewed as excellent test problems for advancing the art of molecular dynamics.

physics.comp-ph