Particle interactions in high-temperature plasmas

✍ Scribed by Pike, Oliver James

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 154
• Series: Springer theses
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This thesis makes two important contributions to plasma physics. The first is the extension of the seminal theoretical works of Spitzer and Braginskii, which describe the basics of particle interactions in plasma, to relativistic systems. Relativistic plasmas have long been studied in high-energy astrophysics and are becoming increasingly attainable in the laboratory. The second is the design of a new class of photon–photon collider, which is the first capable of detecting the Breit–Wheeler process. Though it offers the simplest way for light to be converted into matter, the process has never been detected in the 80 years since its theoretical prediction. The experimental scheme proposed here exploits the radiation used in inertial confinement fusion experiments and could in principle be implemented in one of several current-generation facilities. Read more...

Abstract: This thesis makes two important contributions to plasma physics. The first is the extension of the seminal theoretical works of Spitzer and Braginskii, which describe the basics of particle interactions in plasma, to relativistic systems. Relativistic plasmas have long been studied in high-energy astrophysics and are becoming increasingly attainable in the laboratory. The second is the design of a new class of photon–photon collider, which is the first capable of detecting the Breit–Wheeler process. Though it offers the simplest way for light to be converted into matter, the process has never been detected in the 80 years since its theoretical prediction. The experimental scheme proposed here exploits the radiation used in inertial confinement fusion experiments and could in principle be implemented in one of several current-generation facilities

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xix
Introduction (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 1-16
Theoretical Background (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 17-33
Dynamical Friction in a Relativistic Plasma (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 35-50
Transport Processes in a Relativistic Plasma (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 51-79
Numerical Simulations of High-Temperature Plasmas (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 81-100
An Experiment to Observe the Breit–Wheeler Process (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 101-123
Conclusions (Oliver James Pike)....Pages 125-133
Back Matter ....Pages 135-144

✦ Subjects

High temperature plasmas;Particles (Nuclear physics);SCIENCE / Energy;SCIENCE / Mechanics / General;SCIENCE / Physics / General;Physics;Plasma Physics;Astrophysics and Astroparticles;Particle Acceleration and Detection, Beam Physics