TY - JOUR

T1 - Electron beam-plasma discharge in GDT mirror trap: Particle-in-cell simulations

AU - Тимофеев, Игорь Валериевич

AU - Анненков, Владимир Вадимович

AU - Волчок, Евгения Павловна

AU - Глинский, Владимир Владимирович

N1 - Funding Information: The work of I.V. Timofeev and V.V. Glinskiy is supported by the Foundation for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics ‘BASIS’. The work of E.P. Volchok is supported by the Grant MK-2676.2021.1.2 of the President of the Russian Federation. The work of V.V. Annenkov is carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the BINP SB RAS (No. 0241-2021-0008). Simulations were performed using the computing resources of the Center for Scientific IT-services ICT SB RAS ( https:// sits.ict.sc ) and “Govorun” supercomputer in JINR ( http://hlit. jinr.ru/ ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 IAEA, Vienna.

PY - 2022/6/1

Y1 - 2022/6/1

N2 - The paper presents the results of numerical simulations of the collective relaxation of an electron beam in a magnetized plasma at the parameters typical to experiments on the ignition of a beam-plasma discharge in the gas dynamic trap (GDT). The goal of these simulations is to confirm the ideas about the mechanism of the discharge development, which are used to interpret the results of recent laboratory experiments (Soldatkina et al 2021 Nucl. Fusion). In particular, a characteristic feature of these experiments is the localization of the beam relaxation region in the vicinity of the entrance mirror. A strong mirror magnetic field compresses the beam so that its transverse size becomes less than the wavelength it excites. In addition, near the mirror, the electron cyclotron frequency is much higher than the plasma one, which can significantly affect the possibility of propagation of the most unstable waves outside the beam. Particle-in-cell simulations make it possible not only to find how efficiently intense plasma oscillations penetrate the rarefied periphery, but also to prove that the turbulent zone in a realistic nonuniform plasma has regions dominated by transverse electric fields. This creates the necessary conditions for efficient acceleration of the trapped particles to energies much higher than the initial beam energy.

AB - The paper presents the results of numerical simulations of the collective relaxation of an electron beam in a magnetized plasma at the parameters typical to experiments on the ignition of a beam-plasma discharge in the gas dynamic trap (GDT). The goal of these simulations is to confirm the ideas about the mechanism of the discharge development, which are used to interpret the results of recent laboratory experiments (Soldatkina et al 2021 Nucl. Fusion). In particular, a characteristic feature of these experiments is the localization of the beam relaxation region in the vicinity of the entrance mirror. A strong mirror magnetic field compresses the beam so that its transverse size becomes less than the wavelength it excites. In addition, near the mirror, the electron cyclotron frequency is much higher than the plasma one, which can significantly affect the possibility of propagation of the most unstable waves outside the beam. Particle-in-cell simulations make it possible not only to find how efficiently intense plasma oscillations penetrate the rarefied periphery, but also to prove that the turbulent zone in a realistic nonuniform plasma has regions dominated by transverse electric fields. This creates the necessary conditions for efficient acceleration of the trapped particles to energies much higher than the initial beam energy.

KW - beam-plasma interaction

KW - mirror traps

KW - particle-in-cell simulations

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129363294&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/1741-4326/ac3cdc

DO - 10.1088/1741-4326/ac3cdc

M3 - Article

VL - 62

JO - Nuclear Fusion

JF - Nuclear Fusion

SN - 0029-5515

IS - 6

M1 - 066033

ER -