Abstract
Nonquasineutral electron current filaments with the azimuthal magnetic field are considered that arise due to the generation of electron vorticity in the initial (dissipative) stage of evolution of a current-carrying plasma, when the Hall number is small (σB/en e c ≪ 1) because of the low values of the plasma conductivity and magnetic field strength. Equilibrium filamentary structures with both zero and nonzero net currents are considered. Structures with a zero net current type form on time scales of t < t sk = (r 0ω pe /c)2 t st, where t sk is the skin time, t st is the typical time of electron-ion collisions, and r 0 is the radius of the filament. It is shown that, in nonquasineutral filaments in which the current is carried by electrons drifting in the crossed electric (E r ) and magnetic (B θ) fields, ultrarelativistic electron beams on the typical charge-separation scale r B = B/(4πen e ) (the so-called magnetic Debye radius) can be generated. It is found that, for comparable electron currents, the characteristic electron energy in filaments with a nonzero net current is significantly lower than that in zero-net-current filaments that form on typical time scales of t < t sk. This is because, in the latter type of filaments, the oppositely directed electron currents repel one another; as a result, both the density and velocity of electrons increase near the filament axis, where the velocities of relativistic electrons are maximum. Filaments with a zero net current can emit X rays with photon energies ℏ ω up to 10 MeV. The electron velocity distributions in filaments, the X-ray emission spectra, and the total X-ray yield per unit filament length are calculated as functions of the current and the electron number density in the filament. Analytical estimates of the characteristic lifetime of a radiating filament and the typical size of the radiating region as functions of the plasma density are obtained. The results of calculations are compared with the available experimental data.
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Original Russian Text © A.V. Gordeev, T.V. Losseva, 2009, published in Fizika Plazmy, 2009, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 141–160.
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Gordeev, A.V., Losseva, T.V. Nonquasineutral relativistic current filaments and their X-ray emission. Plasma Phys. Rep. 35, 118–135 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X09020044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X09020044