[en] In the present paper, the customary weak turbulence theory is generalized to include reactive instabilities. For the sake of simplicity, the formalism assumes electrostatic perturbation propagating in one-dimensional uniform unmagnetized plasmas. By weak turbulence theory it is meant as the perturbative nonlinear theory based upon Vlasov equation, truncated at the second (or up to third) order nonlinearity and ensemble averaged. By reactive instability it is meant as the plasma instability whose growth rate is not necessarily exceedingly small. The traditional weak turbulence theory found in the literature is applicable only to weakly growing plasma instabilities whose real frequency ω_k can be determined from the real part of the dispersion relation, Re ε(k,ω_k)=0, while the growth rate may be determined by the Landau formula, γ_k=-Im ε(k,ω_k)[∂ Re ε(k,ω_k)/∂ω_k]^-1. This implies the assumption that |γ_k|<<ω_k. On the other hand, for reactive instabilities for which γ_k/ω_k is not necessarily small, the real frequency and growth/damping rate must be determined from the complex roots of the dispersion relation, ε(k,ω_k+iγ_k)=0. The present paper extends the textbook weak turbulence theory to deal with such a situation.

[en] The local heat/mass transfer coefficients for arrays of impinging circular air jets on a plane surface are determined by means of the naphthalene sublimation method. Spent fluid makes a crossflow in the confined space. The crossflow reduces heat/mass transfer at the small gap distance between the jet plate and impingement surface because of reentrainment of the spent fluid. The present study suggests a new exhaust system having effusion holes in the impinging jet plate. The spent air flow out after impingement just through effusion holes located in the upper plate. This system increases heat/mass transfer coefficients and uniformity for small gap distances(H/d≤2)

[en] The solar wind electrons are made of the low-energy Maxwellian core, intermediate-energy halo, field-aligned strahl, and the highly-energetic super-halo electrons. The present paper discusses a model in which the halo electrons interact with the whistler fluctuation via cyclotron wave-particle resonance, and the super-halo electrons interact through Landau resonance with the Langmuir fluctuation, thus maintaining a local steady state. (paper)

[en] In the present paper, the weak turbulence theory for reactive instabilities, formulated in a companion paper [P. H. Yoon, Phys. Plasmas 17, 112316 (2010)], is applied to the strong electron-ion two-stream (or Buneman) instability. The self-consistent theory involves quasilinear velocity space diffusion equation for the particles and nonlinear wave kinetic equation that includes quasilinear (or induced emission) term as well as nonlinear wave-particle interaction term (or a term that represents an induced scattering off ions). We have also performed one-dimensional electrostatic Vlasov simulation in order to benchmark the theoretical analysis. Under the assumption of self-similar drifting Gaussian distribution function for the electrons it is shown that the current reduction and the accompanying electron heating as well as electric field turbulence generation can be discussed in a self-consistent manner. Upon comparison with the Vlasov simulation result it is found that quasilinear wave kinetic equation alone is insufficient to account for the final saturation amplitude. Upon including the nonlinear scattering term in the wave kinetic equation, however, we find that a qualitative agreement with the simulation is recovered. From this, we conclude that the combined quasilinear particle diffusion plus induced emission and scattering (off ions) processes adequately account for the nonlinear development of the Buneman instability.

[en] In a recent series of papers, the present authors developed a kinetic theory for low-frequency turbulence propagating parallel to the ambient magnetic field. Making use of this theory, it was shown that low-frequency Alfvenic turbulence may cascade to ion-cyclotron frequency range and beyond by nonlinear three-wave decay processes. The significance of such a finding is that it may lead to the proton heating by cyclotron resonance. However, the actual proton heating process was not demonstrated. The present paper complements the previous works by including the proton heating in the discussion. It is found that the left-hand circularly polarized Alfven-cyclotron turbulence leads to a moderate heating of the protons in the perpendicular direction and cooling in the parallel direction. It is also found that ion-acoustic turbulence is generated by the decay instability process. Finally, the heating rate is shown to increase in inverse proportion to the time scale of the wave source.

[en] The present paper is concerned with analytic models of warm plasma dispersion relations for electromagnetic waves propagating parallel to the ambient magnetic field. Specifically, effects of finite betas on two slow modes, namely, the left-hand circularly polarized ion-cyclotron mode and the right-hand circularly polarized whistler mode, are investigated. Analytic models of the warm plasma dispersion relations are constructed on the basis of conjecture and upon comparisons with numerically found roots. It is shown that the model solutions are good substitutes for actual roots. The significance of the present work in the context of nonlinear plasma research is discussed.

[en] This paper derives analytical expressions of the dispersion relations for the three basic ideal MHD waves, namely, fast, slow and Alfven waves, as well as their generalizations to include non-ideal MHD effects. It is shown that while the Hall-MHD physics accurately describes ion-cyclotron resonance, it fails to include lower-hybrid resonance. In contrast, the cold two-fluid formalism does account for the lower-hybrid resonance as part of the magnetosonic-whistler mode dispersion surface. However, the cold-plasma approximation rules out the ion-sound mode at the outset. Moreover, it cannot deal with the kinetic Alfven-ion cyclotron (AIC) mode. Therefore, the cold-plasma AIC mode is extended to kinetic AIC mode. Thermal ion-sound wave dispersion relation is also derived by retaining the kinetic thermal correction.

[en] Drift instabilities in current sheets with or without the guide field are investigated with a newly developed improved electrostatic dispersion relation. Traditional (local) theories of lower-hybrid drift instability typically assumes small electron drift speed, and expand the electron distribution function in Taylor series. This approximate treatment is removed in this paper. The resulting formalism is uniformly valid for an arbitrary magnitude of relative ion and electron drift speeds, and is valid for an arbitrary strength of the guide field.

[en] A recent series of papers put forth a self-consistent theory of an asymptotically steady-state electron distribution function and Langmuir turbulence intensity. The theory was developed in terms of the κ distribution which features Maxwellian low-energy electrons and a non-Maxwellian energetic power-law tail component. The present paper discusses a generalized κ distribution that features a Davydov-Druyvesteyn type of core component and an energetic power-law tail component. The physical motivation for such a generalization is so that the model may reflect the influence of low-energy electrons interacting with low-frequency kinetic Alfvénic turbulence as well as with high-frequency Langmuir turbulence. It is shown that such a solution and the accompanying Langmuir wave spectrum rigorously satisfy the balance requirement between the spontaneous and induced emission processes in both the particle and wave kinetic equations, and approximately satisfy the similar balance requirement between the spontaneous and induced scattering processes, which are nonlinear. In spite of the low velocity modification of the electron distribution function, it is shown that the resulting asymptotic velocity power-law index α, where f_e ∼ v ^–α is close to the average index observed during the quiet-time solar wind condition, i.e., α ∼ O(6.5) whereas α_average ∼ 6.69, according to observation

[en] The principle of magnetic field-to-particle energy conversion for magnetic reconnection, originally developed by the authors for Harris-Fadeev equilibria, is extended to include a finite north-south (normal) component of the magnetic field, which is typical of the Earth's magnetotail environment. On the basis of the exact conservation laws derived from the nonlinear Vlasov equation, it is demonstrated that a small portion of the energy stored in the magnetic field is released and converted to particle thermal energy as a result of the magnetic field topological transformation, i.e., reconnection. It is also found that the normal field component has a minimal impact on the efficacy of the energy exchange