Narrow Results

We discuss a stochastic model for the behavior of electrons in a magnetically confined plasma having axial symmetry. The aim of the work is to provide an explanation for the density limit observed in the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) machine. The dynamical framework deals with an electron embedded in a stationary and uniform magnetic field and affected by an orthogonal random electric field. The behavior of the average plasma profile is determined by the appropriate Fokker–Planck equation associated to the considered model and the disruptive effects of the stochastic electric field are shown. The comparison between the addressed model and the experimental data allows to fix the relevant spatial scale of such a stochastic field. It is found to be of the order of the Tokamak micro-physics scale, i.e. few millimeters. Moreover, it is clarified how the diffusion process outlines a dependence on the magnetic field as $\sim B^{-3/2}$.

Using 5D membrane/induced-matter theory as a basis, we derive the equations of motion for a novel gauge. The latter admits both particle and wave behaviour, as well as super-communication (wherein there is causal contact in the higher-dimensional manifold among points which are disjoint in spacetime). Possible ways to test this model are suggested, notably using particle mass.

In the Ellis wormhole metrics, we study the characteristics of fluid dynamics and the properties of linear sound waves. By implying the energy–momentum equation and the continuity equation in the general relativistic manner, we examine the flow dynamics and solve the corresponding equations for a relatively simple case — radial flow. To study the linear sound waves, the equations governing the mentioned physical system are linearized and solved and interesting characteristic properties are found.

Pulsar winds are the ideal environment for the study of non-linear electromagnetic waves. It is generally thought that a pulsar launches a striped wind, a magnetohydrodynamic entropy wave, where plasma sheets carried along with the flow separate regions of alternating magnetic field. But when the density drops below a critical value, or equivalently for distances from the pulsar greater than a critical radius, a strong superluminal wave can also propagate. In this contribution we discuss the conversion of the equatorial striped wind into a linearly polarized superluminal wave, and we argue that this mode is important for the conversion of Poynting flux to kinetic energy flux before the outflow reaches the termination shock.

Predicting trajectories of fluid parcels on the water surface perturbed by waves is a difficult mathematical and theoretical problem. It is even harder to model flows generated on the water surface due to complex three-dimensional wave fields, which commonly result from the modulation instability of planar waves. We have recently shown that quasi-standing, or Faraday, waves are capable of generating horizontal fluid motions on the water surface whose statistical properties are very close to those in two-dimensional turbulence. This occurs due to the generation of horizontal vortices. Here we show that progressing waves generated by a localized source are also capable of creating horizontal vortices. The interaction between such vortices can be controlled and used to create stationary surface flows of desired topology. These results offer new methods of surface flow generation, which allow engineering inward and outward surface jets, large-scale vortices and other complex flows. The new principles can be also be used to manipulate floaters on the water surface and to form well-controlled Lagrangian coherent structures on the surface. The resulting flows are localized in a narrow layer near the surface, whose thickness is less than one wavelength.