Relaxation of a thermal perturbation in a collisional plasma

The relationship between the nonlocal and nonstationary effects in electron heat transport processes in a weakly collisional plasma is investigated by considering the problem of the relaxation of a thermal perturbation as an example. It is shown that, for small-scale perturbations, the electron thermal conductivity depends not only on the temperature scale length but also on time. The consequence is that there exist two qualitatively different characteristic relaxation regimes of thermal perturbations on small and large scale lengths. As a result, the evolution of hot spots in laser plasmas should be described with allowance for the nonstationary nature of electron heat transport. In the course of this evolution, relaxation on the collisional kinetic time scale is clearly seen to change into relaxation on the collisional hydrodynamic time scale.     

Possible mechanism for radial ion acceleration in a beam-plasma discharge

A mechanism is proposed that can lead to radial ion acceleration in a plasma discharge excited by an electron beam in a relatively weak longitudinal magnetic field. The mechanism operates as follows. The beam generates an azimuthally asymmetric slow potential wave, which traps electrons. Trapped magnetized electrons drift radially with a fairly high velocity under the combined action of the azimuthal wave field (which is constant for them) and a relatively weak external longitudinal magnetic field. The radial electron flux generates a radial charge-separation electric field, which accelerates unmagnetized plasma ions in the radial direction. The ion flux densities and energies achievable in experiments with kiloelectronvolt electron beams in magnetic fields of up to 100 G are estimated.     

Modeling of the tearing instability in unreduced two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics

The problem of the tearing instability is solved numerically in cylindrical geometry by using the unreduced two-fluid MHD model. It is shown that the duration of the nonlinear stage of the tearing instability in a hot plasma is rather sensitive to such factors as the initial radial density and temperature profiles, the initial ion-to-electron pressure ratio, and the longitudinal thermal conductivity. Depending on these factors, the two-fluid effects (primarily, the Hall effect) can either greatly hasten the magnetic reconnection process (in comparison to that in the one-fluid MHD model) or greatly slow it. An illustrative explanation of the results obtained is given.     

Ion Larmor radius effects in collisionless reconnection

The nonlinear evolution of collisionless magnetic field line reconnection is investigated numerically in plasma regimes where the effects of the electron and ion temperatures are important. These effects modify the structure of the current and vorticity layers that are formed during the onset of the reconnection instability. The results of investigations in a two-dimensional periodic configuration including ion Larmorradius effects to all orders are presented and compared with the results obtained in regimes with a large sound Larmor radius. It is found that, while the roles of the sound Larmor radius and the ion Larmor radius are inter-changeable as far as the nonlinear reconnection rate is concerned, the structure of the vorticity and current density layers is different in the two cases.     

Study of plasma rotation in the GOL-3 facility

The MHD activity of plasma in the GOL-3 facility was studied experimentally. The complicated azimuthal structure of the profile of the longitudinal current is revealed by magnetic measurements and high-speed imaging. The azimuthal mode composition of magnetic perturbations, as well as the frequency of their rotation in different regimes, is determined. The signs of differential plasma rotation in the facility are described. Possible mechanisms responsible for the relation of differential rotation to current filamentation and magnetic reconnection in the GOL-3 plasma are proposed. These mechanisms explain the previously observed experimental evidences of these processes.     

Stochastic analysis of the relationships between saturated hydraulic conductivity variance and solute dispersion in heterogeneous soils

The effect of three‐dimensional heterogeneity of saturated hydraulic conductivity on the vertical transport of solutes in soils is examined by means of controlled numerical experiments. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, an important transport parameter that controls the dispersion of pollutants in heterogeneous soils, is assumed to be composed of a homogeneous mean value and a perturbation caused by the vertical variability of soil properties, producing a stochastic process in the mean flow direction. The spatial heterogeneity of porous soils is characterized by the variance and correlation scale of the saturated hydraulic conductivity in the transport domain. Numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the extent of contaminant dispersion in Hawaiian Oxic soils when uncertainty exists as a result of the spatial heterogeneity of saturated hydraulic conductivity. Statistical analysis of the saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements on undisturbed soil cores from two locations in Hawaiian Oxic soils indicated two different soils with the same mean and different variances. The partial differential equations describing three‐dimensional transient flow and solute transport in soils with a random conductivity field were solved to evaluate the effect of these two variance levels on the transport of a contaminant plume originating from the surface. The significance of the variance on the spatial and temporal distribution of tracer concentrations is demonstrated using solute breakthrough curves at various depths in the soil profile. The longitudinal macrodispersivity resulting from tracer spreading in the heterogeneous soils with a finite local dispersivity is also analyzed. The analysis shows a similar solute dispersion behavior for the two variances. However, there is an overall reduction in the dispersion of solutes resulting from a uniform velocity field with the same mean. Macrodispersivity values in heterogeneous soils are proportional to the variance at smaller travel distances but converge to the same value at larger travel distances.     

Model magnetic field configurations with islands

Helical perturbations of the tokamak magnetic field can give rise to magnetic islands in the vicinity of the rational magnetic surfaces at which the pitch of the magnetic field lines coincides with that of the perturbation. The widely known relationship between the magnetic island width and the perturbation amplitude is valid under the assumptions that the island width is small in comparison to the radius of the rational surface and that the perturbation amplitude is constant in the radial direction. The latter assumption indicates that the island width is small in comparison to the radial size of the region where the perturbation current is localized. The calculations carried out for four model magnetic field configurations show that the geometry of the magnetic islands depends on the extent to which the perturbation current is localize and that the width of the magnetic islands is smaller than that calculated from the familiar relationship. The larger the perturbation amplitude, the greater this difference: it may be as large as 25% for the strong perturbations arising during disruptions. The calculations are based on the solution of the geometric problem of constructing the lines of the magnetic field determined by the given distributions of the initial current and perturbation current; the equilibrium equation is not considered. The question of the direction of the perturbation current within the island relative to the direction of the initial unperturbed current is discussed. The perturbation current flowing in an island is directed opposite to the initial current with a radially decreasing density; for this reason, such an island can naturally be called a “negative” island. Together with the formation of negative islands, the formation of “positive” ones is also considered. The latter are shown to form under the following conditions: the perturbation current density should be higher than the density of the current that produces the unperturbed field and the perturbation current itself should be localized in a sufficiently narrow radial layer. The positive islands are smaller in size than negative ones.     

Oscillations, shocks, and fine wave structures arising during the coalescence of two force-free current loops

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of the magnetic reconnection of two parallel force-free current loops are carried out using a high-resolution MHD code in which an artificial wind scheme is employed. Two typical cases (namely, co-helicity and counter-helicity reconnection) are investigated. The simulation results show that co-helicity reconnection involves only the reconnection of the poloidal component of the magnetic field, while counter-helicity reconnection involves the reconnection of both the poloidal and axial components of the magnetic field. Therefore, counter-helicity reconnection is much more complicated and violent as compared to co-helicity reconnection. In both cases, jetlike flows are generated. Counter-helicity reconnection is accompanied by oscillations of both the axial magnetic field and the axial component of the velocity. Due to these oscillations, quasi-steady models of a current sheet appear to be inapplicable, because the current sheet structure also changes. The complicated and unsteady structure of the current distribution shows that magnetic reconnection occurs not only in the central sheet between two loops in the earlier stage of the process, but also inside each loop in later stages. Rather complicated flows and waves with fine structures are also generated during reconnection. Some of the waves appear to be shock waves.     

Study of the mechanism for fast ion heating in the GOL-3 multimirror magnetic confinement system

Results are presented from experimental studies of ion heating in the GOL-3 device. The experiments were carried out in a multimirror configuration with a local magnetic well. It was found that, during the injection of a relativistic electron beam, a decrease in the local density of the beam in a magnetic well, which is proportional to the decrease in the strength of the longitudinal magnetic field, results in the formation of a short plasma region with a low electron temperature. The measured longitudinal gradient of the plasma pressure corresponds to an electron temperature gradient of ～2–3 keV/m. Axially nonuniform heating of the plasma electrons gives rise to the macroscopic motion of the plasma along the magnetic field in each cell of the multimirror confinement system. The mixing of the counterpropagating plasma flows inside each cell leads to fast ion heating. Under the given experimental conditions, the efficiency of this heating mechanism is higher than that due to binary electron-ion collisions. The collision and mixing of the counterpropagating plasma flows is accompanied by a neutron and γ-ray burst. The measured ratio of the plasma pressure to the vacuum magnetic field pressure in these experiments reaches 0.2.     

Kinetic theory of the positive column of a low-pressure discharge in a transverse magnetic field

The influence of a transverse magnetic field on the characteristics of the positive column of a planar low-pressure discharge is studied theoretically. The motion of magnetized electrons is described in the framework of a continuous-medium model, while the ion motion in the ambipolar electric field is described by means of a kinetic equation. Using mathematical transformations, the problem is reduced to a secondorder ordinary differential equation, from which the spatial distribution of the potential is found in an analytic form. The spatial distributions of the plasma density, mean plasma velocity, and electric potential are calculated, the ion velocity distribution function at the plasma boundary is found, and the electron energy as a function of the magnetic field is determined. It is shown that, as the magnetic field rises, the electron energy increases, the distributions of the plasma density and mean plasma velocity become asymmetric, the maximum of the plasma density is displaced in the direction of the Ampère force, and the ion flux in this direction becomes substantially larger than the counter-directed ion flux.     

Effect of vasoconstriction on longitudinal distribution of pulmonary vascular pressure and volume

We used an improved version of the low-viscosity bolus method to evaluate longitudinal (arterial-to-venous) differences in the sensitivity of the dog lung lobe vasculature to selected vasoconstrictor stimuli, including hypoxia, and serotonin, histamine, and norepinephrine infusions. This method revealed a bimodal distribution of local vascular resistance vs. cumulative vascular volume under the zone 3 conditions studied. Our interpretation of the two modes of relatively high resistance is that they correspond to high resistance per unit volume segments of the arteries and veins upstream and downstream from the relatively low resistance per unit volume capillary bed. Thus an increase in the height of the upstream and downstream modes of the resistance distribution suggests constriction in small arteries and veins, respectively. Horizontal displacement of the modes along the cumulative volume axis suggests changes in the distribution of volume among the arteries, veins, and capillary bed. By use of these criteria, the results are consistent with the concept that each of the vasoconstrictor stimuli studied had a different longitudinal response pattern. Hypoxia constricted mainly small arteries, whereas serotonin constricted small and large arteries. Histamine constricted large and small veins, and norepinephrine constricted large and small veins and arteries.     

Thermal conductivity of functional citrus tree wood

Thermal conductivity coefficients have been determined for longitudinal and transverse flow in 4 varieties of fresh Citrus wood using steady state-methods. Equations were developed from which thermal conductivity could be rapidly estimated from moisture content or electrical conductivity. The heat balance of large and small tree trunks on a freezing night has been calculated on the basis of the coefficients.     

Mathematical modeling of the excitation process in myocardial tissue: influence of fiber rotation on wavefront propagation and potential field

In our macroscopic model the heart tissue is represented as a bidomain coupling the intra- and extracellular media. Owing to the fiber structure of the myocardium, these media are anisotropic, and their conductivity tensors have a principal axis parallel to the local fiber direction. A reaction-diffusion system is derived that governs the distribution and evolution of the extracellular and transmembrane potentials during the depolarization phase of the heart beat. To investigate frontlike solutions, the system is rescaled and transformed into a system dependent on a small parameter. Subsequently a perturbation analysis is carried out that yields zero- and first-order approximations called eikonal equations. The effects of the transmural fiber rotation on wavefront propagation and the corresponding potential field, elicited by point stimulations, are investigated by means of numerical simulations.     

Action of an electromagnetic pulse on a plasma with a high level of ion-acoustic turbulence. Field diffusion and subdiffusion

Specific features of the interaction of a relatively weak electromagnetic pulse with a nonisothermal current-carrying plasma in which the electron drift velocity is much higher than the ion-acoustic velocity, but lower than the electron thermal velocity, are studied. If the state of the plasma with ion-acoustic turbulence does not change during the pulse action, the field penetrates into the plasma in the ordinary diffusion regime, but the diffusion coefficient in this case is inversely proportional to the anomalous conductivity. If, during the pulse action, the particle temperatures and the current-driving field change due to turbulent heating, the field penetrates into the plasma in the subdiffusion regime. It is shown how the presence of subdiffusion can be detected by measuring the reflected field.     

Peptide structural analysis by solid-state NMR spectroscopy.

Solid-state nmr spectroscopy provides a robust method for investigating polypeptides that have been prepared by chemical synthesis and that are immobilized by strong interactions with solid surfaces or large macroscopic complexes. Solid-state nmr spectroscopy has been widely used to investigate membrane polypeptides or peptide aggregates such as amyloid fibrils. Whereas magic angle spinning solid-state nmr spectroscopy allows one to measure distances and dihedral angles with high accuracy, static membrane samples that are aligned with respect to the magnetic field direction allow one to determine the secondary structure of bound polypeptides and their orientation with respect to the bilayer normal. Peptide dynamics and the effect of polypeptides on the macroscopic phase preference of phospholipid membranes have been investigated in nonoriented samples. Investigations of the structure and topology of membrane channels, peptide antibiotics, signal sequences as well as model systems that allow one to dissect the interaction contributions in phospholipid membranes will be presented in greater detail.     

Low-frequency instabilities of collisionless plasma and the 16-moment approximation

Using the 16-moment equations that take into account heat fluxes in anisotropic collisionless plasma, the properties of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities are investigated. For all instabilities occurring in the MHD approach (the normal incompressible firehose instability, the second compressible almost longitudinal firehose instability, and the almost transverse mirror instability of slow magnetosonic modes, as well as thermal instability caused by the heat flux directed along the magnetic field), their kinetic analogs are considered. The kinetic dispersion relation in the low-frequency range in the vicinity of the ion thermal velocity is analyzed. The flow of plasma ions along the magnetic field is taken into account. The thresholds and instability growth rates obtained in the MHD and kinetic approaches are found to be in good agreement. This indicates that the 16-moment MHD equations adequately describe the dynamics of collisionless plasma.     

Continuum simulations of biomembrane dynamics and the importance of hydrodynamic effects

Traditional particle-based simulation strategies are impractical for the study of lipid bilayers and biological membranes over the longest length and time scales (microns, seconds and longer) relevant to cellular biology. Continuum-based models developed within the frameworks of elasticity theory, fluid dynamics and statistical mechanics provide a framework for studying membrane biophysics over a range of mesoscopic to macroscopic length and time regimes, but the application of such ideas to simulation studies has occurred only relatively recently. We review some of our efforts in this direction with emphasis on the dynamics in model membrane systems. Several examples are presented that highlight the prominent role of hydrodynamics in membrane dynamics and we argue that careful consideration of fluid dynamics is key to understanding membrane biophysics at the cellular scale.     

Drastic Surface Plasmon Mode Shifts in Gold Nanorods Due to Electron Charging

The color of small gold rods changes dramatically when electrons are injected by chemical reductants. The longitudinal and transverse plasmon modes are both found to blue-shift, and the shift is larger for rods with larger aspect ratios. The color changes are visible to the eye for rods with aspect ratios around 2–3. It is found that the surface plasmon band is damped when charging becomes high. The effects are in qualitative agreement with a model in which the gold plasma frequency increases due to an increase in electron density.     

Heat Transfer in MHD Mixed Convection Flow of a Ferrofluid along a Vertical Channel

This study investigated heat transfer in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection flow of ferrofluid along a vertical channel. The channel with non-uniform wall temperatures was taken in a vertical direction with transverse magnetic field. Water with nanoparticles of magnetite (Fe ₃ O ₄) was selected as a conventional base fluid. In addition, non-magnetic (Al ₂ O ₃) aluminium oxide nanoparticles were also used. Comparison between magnetic and magnetite nanoparticles were also conducted. Fluid motion was originated due to buoyancy force together with applied pressure gradient. The problem was modelled in terms of partial differential equations with physical boundary conditions. Analytical solutions were obtained for velocity and temperature. Graphical results were plotted and discussed. It was found that temperature and velocity of ferrofluids depend strongly on viscosity and thermal conductivity together with magnetic field. The results of the present study when compared concurred with published work.