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Asenjo, F. A., Comisso, L., & Mahajan, S. M. (2015). Generalized magnetofluid connections in pair plasmas. Phys. Plasmas, 22(12), 4 pp.
Abstract: We extend the magnetic connection theorem of ideal magnetohydrodynamics to nonideal relativistic pair plasmas. Adopting a generalized Ohm's law, we prove the existence of generalized magnetofluid connections that are preserved by the plasma dynamics. We show that these connections are related to a general antisymmetric tensor that unifies the electromagnetic and fluid fields. The generalized magnetofluid connections set important constraints on the plasma dynamics by forbidding transitions between configurations with different magnetofluid connectivity. An approximated solution is explicitly shown where the corrections due to current inertial effects are found. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
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Mahajan, S. M., & Asenjo, F. A. (2016). A statistical model for relativistic quantum fluids interacting with an intense electromagnetic wave. Phys. Plasmas, 23(5), 12 pp.
Abstract: A statistical model for relativistic quantum fluids interacting with an arbitrary amplitude circularly polarized electromagnetic wave is developed in two steps. First, the energy spectrum and the wave function for a quantum particle (Klein Gordon and Dirac) embedded in the electromagnetic wave are calculated by solving the appropriate eigenvalue problem. The energy spectrum is anisotropic in the momentum K and reflects the electromagnetic field through the renormalization of the rest mass m to M = root m(2) + q(2)Q(2). Based on this energy spectrum of this quantum particle plus field combination (QPF), a statistical mechanics model of the quantum fluid made up of these weakly interacting QPF is developed. Preliminary investigations of the formalism yield highly interesting results-a new scale for temperature, and fundamental modification of the dispersion relation of the electromagnetic wave. It is expected that this formulation could, inter alia, uniquely advance our understanding of laboratory as well as astrophysical systems where one encounters arbitrarily large electromagnetic fields. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.
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Mahajan, S. M., & Asenjo, F. A. (2018). General connected and reconnected fields in plasmas. Phys. Plasmas, 25(2), 7 pp.
Abstract: For plasma dynamics, more encompassing than the magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) approximation, the foundational concepts of “magnetic reconnection” may require deep revisions because, in the larger dynamics, magnetic field is no longer connected to the fluid lines; it is replaced by more general fields (one for each plasma specie) that are weighted combination of the electromagnetic and the thermal-vortical fields. We study the two-fluid plasma dynamics plasma expressed in two different sets of variables: the two-fluid (2F) description in terms of individual fluid velocities, and the one-fluid (1F) variables comprising the plasma bulk motion and plasma current. In the 2F description, a Connection Theorem is readily established; we show that, for each specie, there exists a Generalized (Magnetofluid/Electro-Vortic) field that is frozen-in the fluid and consequently remains, forever, connected to the flow. This field is an expression of the unification of the electromagnetic, and fluid forces (kinematic and thermal) for each specie. Since the magnetic field, by itself, is not connected in the first place, its reconnection is never forbidden and does not require any external agency (like resistivity). In fact, a magnetic field reconnection (local destruction) must be interpreted simply as a consequence of the preservation of the dynamical structure of the unified field. In the 1F plasma description, however, it is shown that there is no exact physically meaningful Connection Theorem; a general and exact field does not exist, which remains connected to the bulk plasma flow. It is also shown that the helicity conservation and the existence of a Connected field follow from the same dynamical structure; the dynamics must be expressible as an ideal Ohm's law with a physical velocity. This new perspective, emerging from the analysis of the post MHD physics, must force us to reexamine the meaning as well as our understanding of magnetic reconnection. Published by AIP Publishing.
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Mahajan, S. M., & Asenjo, F. A. (2022). Interacting quantum and classical waves: Resonant and non-resonant energy transfer to electrons immersed in an intense electromagnetic wave. Phys. Plasmas, 29(2), 022107.
Abstract: Dynamics of electrons subjected to a constant amplitude classical electromagnetic (EM) wave is investigated as a fundamental, representative problem in the physics of interacting quantum and classical waves. In the nonrelativistic regime (electrons as Schrodinger waves), the electron energy acquires a constant and a time dependent part. Driven by EM waves, both parts scale strongly with the amplitude, but we expect no resonant enhancement since the parallel electron “speed ” of nonrelativistic electrons could never match the wave phase velocity. In the relativistic regime (electron as a Klein-Gordon wave), however, a class of electron waves (with parallel speed matching the EM phase speed) are resonantly excited to extremely high energies. Such a direct resonant energy transfer from intense electromagnetic waves constitutes a mechanism that could, in principle, power the most energetic of cosmic rays (this mechanism will work on protons just as well). Some predictions of the theory will, hopefully, be tested in laboratory laser experiments. The nonrelativistic calculations will also be examined in the context of recent experiments using photon-induced near-field electron microscopy in detail.
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