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Particle Acceleration (particle + acceleration)
Selected AbstractsGeV-acceleration of electron by a superintense ultrashort laser pulseLASER PHYSICS LETTERS, Issue 8 2004A. Bahari Abstract New mechanism of laser acceleration of a charged particle is discovered and explained. Particle acceleration with focused beam of superintense ultrashort laser pulse is determined by a combination of ponderomotive forces at rising and falling edges of laser pulse and a longitudinal component of laser electric field. We found that acceleration of electron, which moves along the laser wavevector, is crucially depends on whether or not the electron reaches the region z , zR behind the laser focus (here zR is the Rayleigh length). Interpretation of this effect consists in that the laser longitudinal electric field at the electron trajectory in this region is a unidirectional one (oscillatory in the case of laser linear polarization and slowly varying in the case of laser circular polarization). Due to this effect it is possible to overcome the negative influence of a phase slippage in the particle- wave interaction, which substantially suppresses electron acceleration. We revealed also that the physical reason of a unidirectional influence of laser longitudinal electric field on accelerating electron in the region z , zR consists in the difference in phase velocities of transverse and longitudinal components of a focused laser field. Owing to this mechanism, lasers of ultimate present-day parameters enable electron acceleration up to the energy , , 1 GeV. Moreover, electron acceleration along the laser wavevector (in contrast to techniques currently considered) is not sensitive to field initial phase (there is no bunch effect), it is possible to accelerate slow electrons (electrons need not to be preaccelerated to relativistic velocities), and there are no problems with a removal of accelerated electron from the laser field. (© 2004 by ASTRO, Ltd. Published exclusively by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA) [source] Hard electron energy distribution in the relativistic shocks of gamma-ray burst afterglowsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008L. Resmi ABSTRACT Particle acceleration in relativistic shocks is not a very well understood subject. Owing to that difficulty, radiation spectra from relativistic shocks, such as those in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, have been often modelled by making assumptions about the underlying electron distribution. One such assumption is a relatively soft distribution of the particle energy, which need not be true always, as is obvious from observations of several GRB afterglows. In this paper, we describe modifications to the afterglow standard model to accommodate energy spectra which are ,hard'. We calculate the overall evolution of the synchrotron and Compton flux arising from such a distribution. We also model two afterglows, GRB010222 and GRB020813, under this assumption and estimate the physical parameters. [source] Cyclotron Maser Radiation in Space and Laboratory PlasmasCONTRIBUTIONS TO PLASMA PHYSICS, Issue 5-6 2004R. Bingham Abstract One of the best known coherent radio emission mechanisms is the electron cyclotron maser instability. In this article we will demonstrate that electron cyclotron maser emission is directly associated with particular types of charged particle acceleration and propagation in space and laboratory plasmas. These include electron ring distributions, horseshoe or crescent shaped electron distribution functions. Planetary and stellarmagnetospheres are examples of where horseshoe or crescent shaped electron distributions can be found and astrophysical shocks produce ring shaped electron distribution functions. In the laboratory horseshoe or crescent shaped distributions are produced whenever an electron beam propagates into a stronger magnetic field region. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Considerations of the discontinuous deformation analysis on wave propagation problemsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 12 2009Jiong Gu Abstract In rock engineering, the damage criteria of the rock mass under dynamic loads are generally governed by the threshold values of wave amplitudes, such as the peak particle velocity and the peak particle acceleration. Therefore, the prediction of wave attenuation across fractured rock mass is important on assessing the stability and damage of rock mass under dynamic loads. This paper aims to investigate the applications of the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) for modeling wave propagation problems in rock mass. Parametric studies are carried out to obtain an insight into the influencing factors on the accuracy of wave propagations, in terms of the block size, the boundary condition and the incident wave frequency. The reflected and transmitted waves from the interface between two materials are also numerically simulated. To study the tensile failure induced by the reflected wave, the spalling phenomena are modeled under various loading frequencies. The numerical results show that the DDA is capable of modeling the wave propagation in jointed rock mass with a good accuracy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Gas-solids flow behavior: CFB riser vs. downerAICHE JOURNAL, Issue 9 2001H. Zhang Comparisons are made in a circulating fluidized-bed riser/downer system between a 15.1 m high, 0.10 m ID riser and a 9.3 m high, 0.10 m ID downer, based on the measurements of the radial distributions of the local solids holdups and local particle velocities along the two columns. Although the core-annulus flow structures exist in both the riser and downer, the radial flow structure in the downer differs largely from that in the riser. The radial distributions of solids holdup and particle velocity in the downer are much more uniform than those in the riser, thus ensuring the low back mixing and the narrow particle residence time distribution in the downer. The axial flow structure in the downer is also more uniform than that in the riser. Due to the high particle acceleration and the high particle velocity in the downer, the overall solids holdup is significantly lower than that in the riser. The microflow structure in the downer, characterized by the low intermittency indices, is also more uniform than that in the riser. These key properties of the downer make it a very promising candidate for industrial applications where short reaction times and high product selectivity are required. [source] A kinetic approach to cosmic-ray-induced streaming instability at supernova shocksMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2009E. Amato ABSTRACT We show that a purely kinetic approach to the excitation of waves by cosmic rays in the vicinity of a shock front leads to predict the appearance of a non-Alfvénic fast-growing mode which has the same dispersion relation as that previously found by Bell in 2004 by treating the plasma in the magnetohydrodynamic approximation. The kinetic approach allows us to investigate the dependence of the dispersion relation of these waves on the microphysics of the current which compensates the cosmic ray flow. We also show that a resonant and a non-resonant mode may appear at the same time and one of the two may become dominant on the other depending on the conditions in the acceleration region. We discuss the role of the unstable modes for magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration in supernova remnants at different stages of the remnant evolution. [source] Formation of hard very high energy gamma-ray spectra of blazars due to internal photon,photon absorptionMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2008Felix A. Aharonian ABSTRACT The energy spectra of TeV gamma-rays from blazars, after being corrected for intergalatic absorption in the extragalactic background light (EBL), appear unusually hard, a fact that poses challenges to the conventional models of particle acceleration in TeV blazars and/or to the EBL models. In this paper, we show that the internal absorption of gamma-rays caused by interactions with dense narrow-band radiation fields in the vicinity of compact gamma-ray production regions can lead to the formation of gamma-ray spectra of an almost arbitrary hardness. This allows significant relaxation of the current tight constraints on particle acceleration and radiation models, although at the expense of enhanced requirements to the available non-thermal energy budget. The latter, however, is not a critical issue, as long as it can be largely compensated by the Doppler boosting, assuming large (>10) Doppler factors of the relativistically moving gamma-ray production regions. The suggested scenario of formation of hard gamma-ray spectra predicts detectable synchrotron radiation of secondary electron,positron pairs which might require a revision of the current ,standard paradigm' of spectral energy distributions of gamma-ray blazars. If the primary gamma-rays are of hadronic origin related to pp or p, interactions, the ,internal gamma-ray absorption' model predicts neutrino fluxes close to the detection threshold of the next generation high-energy neutrino detectors. [source] A two-dimensional electrodynamical outer gap model for ,-ray pulsars: ,-ray spectrumMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2006J. Takata ABSTRACT A two-dimensional electrodynamical model is used to study particle acceleration in the outer magnetosphere of a pulsar. The charge depletion from the Goldreich,Julian charge density causes a large electric field along the magnetic field lines. The charge particles are accelerated by the electric field and emit ,-rays via the curvature process. Some of the emitted ,-rays may collide with X-ray photons to make new pairs, which are accelerated again on the different field lines and emit ,-rays. We simulate the pair creation cascade in the meridional plane using the pair creation mean-free path, in which the X-ray photon number density is proportional to the inverse square of the radial distance. With the space charge density determined by the pair creation simulation, we solve the electric structure of the outer gap in the meridional plane and calculate the curvature spectrum. We investigate in detail the relation between the spectrum and total current, which is carried by the particles produced in the gap and/or injected at the boundaries of the gap. We demonstrate that the hardness of the spectrum is strongly controlled by the current carriers. Especially, the spectrum sharply softens if we assume a larger particle injection at the outer boundary of the outer gap. This is because the mean-free path of the pair creation of the inwardly propagating ,-ray photons is much shorter than the light radius, so many pairs are produced in the gap to quench the outer gap. Because the two-dimensional model can link both gap width along the magnetic field line and trans-field thickness with the spectral cut-off energy and flux, we can diagnose both the current through the gap and the inclination angle between the rotational and magnetic axes. We apply the theory to the Vela pulsar. By comparing the results with the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) data, we rule out any cases that have a large particle injection at the outer boundary. We also suggest the inclination angle of ,inc, 65°. The present model predicts the outer gap starting from near the conventional null charge surface for the Vela pulsar. [source] Turbulent gas motions in galaxy cluster simulations: the role of smoothed particle hydrodynamics viscosityMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005K. Dolag ABSTRACT Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) employs an artificial viscosity to properly capture hydrodynamic shock waves. In its original formulation, the resulting numerical viscosity is large enough to suppress structure in the velocity field on scales well above the nominal resolution limit, and to damp the generation of turbulence by fluid instabilities. This could artificially suppress random gas motions in the intracluster medium (ICM), which are driven by infalling structures during the hierarchical structure formation process. We show that this is indeed the case by analysing results obtained with an SPH formulation where an individual, time-variable viscosity is used for each particle, following a suggestion by Morris & Monaghan. Using test calculations involving strong shocks, we demonstrate that this scheme captures shocks as well as the original formulation of SPH, but, in regions away from shocks, the numerical viscosity is much smaller. In a set of nine high-resolution simulations of cosmological galaxy cluster formation, we find that this low-viscosity formulation of SPH produces substantially higher levels of turbulent gas motions in the ICM, reaching a kinetic energy content in random gas motions (measured within a 1-Mpc cube) of up to 5,30 per cent of the thermal energy content, depending on cluster mass. This also has significant effects on radial gas profiles and bulk cluster properties. We find a central flattening of the entropy profile and a reduction of the central gas density in the low-viscosity scheme. As a consequence, the bolometric X-ray luminosity is decreased by about a factor of 2. However, the cluster temperature profile remains essentially unchanged. Interestingly, this tends to reduce the differences seen in SPH and adaptive mesh refinement simulations of cluster formation. Finally, invoking a model for particle acceleration by magnetohydrodynamics waves driven by turbulence, we find that efficient electron acceleration and thus diffuse radio emission can be powered in the clusters simulated with the low-viscosity scheme provided that more than 5,10 per cent of the turbulent energy density is associated with fast magneto-sonic modes. [source] A Relativistic Disk in Sagittarius A*ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue S1 2003Siming Liu The detection of a mm/Sub-mm "bump" in Sgr A*'s radio spectrum suggests that at least a portion of its overall emission is produced within a compact accretion disk. This inference is strengthened by observations of strong linear polarization (at the 10 percent level) within this bump. No linear polarization has been detected yet at other wavelengths. Given that radiation from this source is produced on progressively smaller spatial scales with increasing frequency, the mm/Sub-mm bump apparently arises within a mere handful of Schwarzschild radii of the black hole. We have found that a small (10-Schwarzschild-radii) magnetized accretion disk can not only account for the spectral bump via thermal synchrotron processes, but that it can also reproduce the corresponding polarimetric results. In addition, the quiescent X-ray emission appears to be associated with synchrotron self-Comptonization, while X-ray flares detected from Sgr A* may be induced by a sudden enhancement of accretion through this disk. The hardening of the flare-state X-ray spectrum appears to favor thermal bremsstrahlung as the dominant X-ray emission mechanism during the transient event. This picture predicts correlations among the mm, IR, and X-ray flux densities, that appear to be consistent with recent multi-wavelength observations. Further evidence for such a disk in Sgr A* is provided by its radio variability. Recent monitoring of Sgr A* at cm and mm wavelengths suggests that a spectral break is manifested at 3 mm during cm/Sub-mm flares. The flat cm spectrum, combined with a weak X-ray flux in the quiescent state, rules out models in which the radio emission is produced by thermal synchrotron process in a bounded plasma. One possibility is that nonthermal particles may be produced when the large scale quasi-spherical inflow circularizes and settles down into the small accretion disk. Dissipation of kinetic energy associated with radial motion may lead to particle acceleration in shocks or via magnetic reconnection. On the other hand, the identification of a 106-day cycle in Sgr A*'s radio variability may signal a precession of the disk around a spinning black hole. The disk's characteristics imply rigid-body rotation, so the long precession period is indicative of a small black-hole spin with a spin parameter a/M around 0.1. It is interesting to note that such a small value of a/M would be favored if the nonthermal portion of Sgr A*'s spectrum is powered by a Blandford- Znajek type of process; in this situation, the observed luminosity would correspond to an outer disk radius of about 30 Schwarzschild radii. This disk structure is consistent with earlier hydrodynamical and recent MHD simulations and is implied by Sgr A*'s mm/Sub-mm spectral and polarimetric characteristics. For the disk to precess with such a long (106-day) period, the angular momentum flux flowing through it must be sufficiently small that any modulation of the total angular momentum is mostly due to its coupling with the black-hole spin. This requires that the torque exerted on the inner boundary of the disk via magnetic stresses is close to the angular momentum accretion rate associated with the infalling gas. Significant heating at the inner edge of the disk then leaves the gas marginally bounded near the black hole. A strong wind from the central region may ensue and produce a scaled down version of relativistic (possibly magnetized) jets in AGNs. [source] The origin of X-ray flux from the galactic ridgeASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 1-2 2003V.A. Dogiel Abstract We analyze the origin of the Ridge X-ray emission, which remains unknown. We show that the high energy output necessary to produce the X-ray flux, the multi-temperature spectrum of the X-ray emission and suprathermal broadening of the X-ray lines can naturally be explained if emission is produced in regions of particle acceleration. [source] Missing pieces of the solar jigsaw puzzleASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS, Issue 5 2009David Tsiklauri David Tsiklauri reviews the role of small-scale, kinetic effects in the solar corona, throwing new light on unsolved problems of solar physics, such as coronal heating and solar flare particle acceleration. [source] Mentoring and organisational learning in research and developmentR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2005Liz Borredon This paper presents and discusses the contribution of ,mentoring' relationships to organisational learning and knowledge creation in the early stages of research and development (R&D) projects. Our study considers the characteristics of a scientific leader, the nature of the context he creates, and how dialogue contributes to scientific breakthrough. Our study is unusual in as much as research on knowledge creation has developed separately, yet in parallel, with that of mentoring. It is rare to combine these disciplines and yet our research shows there is much to learn from examining the two as a process. We conducted our research at TECHNO, a high-tech-based European company producing advanced equipment dedicated to particles acceleration. Interviews were carried out in 2002,2003 with the founder of the company, the head of the R&D and engineering department, and team members involved in the low energy cyclotron project. Our exploratory research enabled us to identify differences in actors' perceptions about the nature and characteristics of these relationships. Our study also suggests that not all sets of relationships can tolerate the degree of intensity provided by the ,mentor'. TECHNO has other ,mentors' who do not manage to generate the same creative context. Complementary mentoring styles based on premises and process reflection allow to support and enhance ,upper levels' learning by junior team members. We examine the nature of the leaders as mentors and catalysts within the learning process and briefly discuss implications for setting up and maintaining learning teams. [source] | ||||||||||