Greifswald 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 18: Poster: Theorie/Modellierung

P 18.23: Poster

Mittwoch, 1. April 2009, 17:30–19:30, Foyer des IfP

Stability and dynamics of relativistic solitons — •Götz Alexander Lehmann, Ernst Wolfgang Laedke, and Karl-Heinz Spatschek — Institut für Theoretische Physik I, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

The creation of slow moving relativistic solitary structures from high intensity laser radiation interacting with plasma has been demonstrated in various experiments and simulations. Considerable amounts of the laser radiation, up to 40%, are predicted to become trapped in these cavities. We discuss the stability of solitons by numerical simulations. The solitons are stationary solutions of the Maxwell-fluid equations and model trapped high intensity radiation. The structure of the most unstable mode and its growth rate are determined by our stability analysis technique. Within a one-dimensional (1D) model the stability of circular and linear polarized solitons is investigated. Different types of instabilities are found and quantified. Nonlinear 1D simulations of unstable solitons show excitation of a wake-field and subsequent wave-breaking as part of the unstable dynamics. In order to explain the instability of the excited electrostatic wave, we refine existing wave-breaking criteria. To allow for transversal perturbations we discuss the stability of circular polarized solitons in 2D geometry. All studied solitons turn out to suffer from transversal instability. It is demonstrated that the transversal instability dominates the longitudinal instability.