Ambipolar diffusion is diffusion of positive and negative particles with opposite electrical charge (such as electrons and positive ions) due to their interaction via an electric field. [1]
In plasma physics, ambipolar diffusion is closely related to the concept of quasineutrality. In most plasmas, the forces acting on the ions are different from those acting on the electrons, so naively one would expect one species to be transported faster than the other, whether by diffusion or convection or some other process. If such differential transport has a divergence, then it results in a change of the charge density. The latter will in turn create an electric field that can alter the transport of one or both species in such a way that they become equal.
The simplest example is a plasma localized in an unmagnetized vacuum. (See Inertial confinement fusion.) Both electrons and ions will stream outward with their respective thermal velocity. If the ions are relatively cold, their thermal velocity will be small. The thermal velocity of the electrons will be fast due to their high temperature and low mass: . As the electrons leave the initial volume, they will leave behind a positive charge density of ions, which will result in an outwardly-directed electric field. This field will act on the electrons to slow them down and on the ions to speed them up. The net result is that both ions and electrons stream outward at the speed of sound, , which is much smaller than the electron thermal velocity, but usually much larger than the ion thermal velocity.
In astrophysics, "ambipolar diffusion" refers specifically to the decoupling of neutral particles from plasma, for example in the initial stage of star formation. The neutral particles in this case are mostly hydrogen molecules in a cloud that would undergo gravitational collapse if they were not collisionally coupled to the plasma. The plasma is composed of ions (mostly protons) and electrons, which are tied to the interstellar magnetic field and therefore resist collapse. In a molecular cloud where the fractional ionization is very low (one part per million or less), neutral particles only rarely encounter charged particles, and so are not entirely hindered in their collapse (note that now is dynamical collapse, not free fall) into a star. [2] : 285
In the case of ionic crystals, the fluxes of the diffusing species are also coupled due to the electroneutrality [3]
A corona is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It is a hot but relatively dim region of plasma populated by intermittent coronal structures known as solar prominences or filaments.
A magnetic sail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion where an onboard magnetic field source interacts with a plasma wind to form an artificial magnetosphere that acts as a sail, transferring force from the wind to the spacecraft requiring little to no propellant as detailed for each proposed magnetic sail design in this article.
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In solid-state physics, the free electron model is a quantum mechanical model for the behaviour of charge carriers in a metallic solid. It was developed in 1927, principally by Arnold Sommerfeld, who combined the classical Drude model with quantum mechanical Fermi–Dirac statistics and hence it is also known as the Drude–Sommerfeld model.
Magnetic reconnection is a physical process occurring in electrically conducting plasmas, in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration. Magnetic reconnection involves plasma flows at a substantial fraction of the Alfvén wave speed, which is the fundamental speed for mechanical information flow in a magnetized plasma.
Electrical mobility is the ability of charged particles to move through a medium in response to an electric field that is pulling them. The separation of ions according to their mobility in gas phase is called ion mobility spectrometry, in liquid phase it is called electrophoresis.
The diffusion of plasma across a magnetic field was conjectured to follow the Bohm diffusion scaling as indicated from the early plasma experiments of very lossy machines. This predicted that the rate of diffusion was linear with temperature and inversely linear with the strength of the confining magnetic field.
Plasma parameters define various characteristics of a plasma, an electrically conductive collection of charged and neutral particles of various species that responds collectively to electromagnetic forces. Such particle systems can be studied statistically, i.e., their behaviour can be described based on a limited number of global parameters instead of tracking each particle separately.
Neutral-beam injection (NBI) is one method used to heat plasma inside a fusion device consisting in a beam of high-energy neutral particles that can enter the magnetic confinement field. When these neutral particles are ionized by collision with the plasma particles, they are kept in the plasma by the confining magnetic field and can transfer most of their energy by further collisions with the plasma. By tangential injection in the torus, neutral beams also provide momentum to the plasma and current drive, one essential feature for long pulses of burning plasmas. Neutral-beam injection is a flexible and reliable technique, which has been the main heating system on a large variety of fusion devices. To date, all NBI systems were based on positive precursor ion beams. In the 1990s there has been impressive progress in negative ion sources and accelerators with the construction of multi-megawatt negative-ion-based NBI systems at LHD (H0, 180 keV) and JT-60U (D0, 500 keV). The NBI designed for ITER is a substantial challenge (D0, 1 MeV, 40 A) and a prototype is being constructed to optimize its performance in view of the ITER future operations. Other ways to heat plasma for nuclear fusion include RF heating, electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH), ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH), and lower hybrid resonance heating (LH).
The polar wind or plasma fountain is a permanent outflow of plasma from the polar regions of Earth's magnetosphere. Conceptually similar to the solar wind, it is one of several mechanisms for the outflow of ionized particles. Ions accelerated by a polarization electric field known as an ambipolar electric field is believed to be the primary cause of polar wind. Similar processes operate on other planets.
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Plasma is one of four fundamental states of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars, but also dominating the rarefied intracluster medium and intergalactic medium. Plasma can be artificially generated, for example, by heating a neutral gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.
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Due to the presence of charged particles in plasma, plasma diffusion significantly differs from diffusion of gas or liquid. Even in the absence of externally applied fields, the interaction between the positive (ions) and negative plasma particles results in ambipolar diffusion with the diffusion coefficient that is dissimilar to that of either electron or ion species separately if the interaction is neglected.
Classical diffusion is a key concept in fusion power and other fields where a plasma is confined by a magnetic field within a vessel. It considers collisions between ions in the plasma that causes the particles to move to different paths and eventually leave the confinement volume and strike the sides of the vessel.
Dynamics Explorer 2 was a NASA low-altitude mission, launched on 3 August 1981. It consisted of two satellites, DE-1 and DE-2, whose purpose was to investigate the interactions between plasmas in the magnetosphere and those in the ionosphere. The two satellites were launched together into polar coplanar orbits, which allowed them to simultaneously observe the upper and lower parts of the atmosphere.