Discovery of 10 faces of plasma leads to new insights in fusion and plasma science

Phys.org  July 13, 2021 Researchers at Princeton University systematically mapped out all the topological phases of cold magnetized plasmas and established the bulk-edge correspondence. They found that for the linear eigenmodes, there are 10 topological phases in the parameter space of density n, magnetic field B, and parallel wavenumber kz, separated by the surfaces of Langmuir wave-L wave resonance, Langmuir wave-cyclotron wave resonance, and zero magnetic field. For fixed B and kz, only the phase transition at the Langmuir wave-cyclotron wave resonance corresponds to edge modes. A sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of this type of edge modes […]

‘Optical rocket’ created with intense laser light

Eurekalert  September 14, 2018 An international team of researchers (University of Nebraska, China) focused laser pulses on plasma to expel the electrons in the path of the light pulses by their gradient forces, plasma waves were driven in the wakes of the pulses, and electrons were allowed to catch the wakefield waves, which further accelerated the electrons to ultra-relativistic energy. The application of intense light provides a means to control the initial phase of wakefield acceleration and improve the performance of a new generation of compact electron accelerators…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE