EPJD Colloquium - Challenges and opportunities in verification and validation of low temperature plasma simulations and experiments
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- Published on 21 May 2021
In the field of plasma physics, simulations are becoming increasingly relied upon to elucidate fundamental plasma phenomena as well as to simulate real-world plasma reactors. This new colloquium published in EPJD provides a description of how one research group (at Sandia National Laboratories) incorporates verification and validation (V&V) processes in their low temperature plasma (LTP) research and development activities.
EPJ D Colloquium - All-atom relativistic molecular dynamics simulations of channeling and radiation processes in oriented crystals
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- Published on 24 March 2021
In a new Colloquium article published in EPJD, authors from the MBN Research Center (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) review achievements made recently in the field of numerical modeling of ultra-relativistic projectiles propagation in oriented crystals, radiation emission and related phenomena. This topic is highly relevant to the problem of designing novel gamma-ray light sources (LSs) based on the exposure of oriented crystals to the beams of charged particles. Crystal-based LSs can generate radiation in the photon energy range where the technologies based on the fields of permanent magnets become inefficient or incapable.
EPJ D Highlight - Investigating dense plasmas with positron waves
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- Published on 19 February 2021
Astrophysical and lab-created plasmas under the influence of magnetic fields are the source of intense study. New research seeks to understand the dynamics of position waves travelling through these clouds of highly ionised gas.
The investigation of Electron-Positron-Ion (EPI) plasma — a fully ionised gas of electrons and positrons that includes astrophysical plasmas like solar winds — has attracted a great deal of attention over the last twenty years. A new study published in EPJ D by Garston Tiofack, Faculty of Sciences, University of Marousa, Cameroon, and colleagues, assesses the dynamics of positron acoustic waves (PAWS) in EPI plasmas whilst under the influence of magnetic fields, or magnetoplasmas.
EPJ D Topical review - A review of the gas and liquid phase interactions in low-temperature plasma jets used for biomedical applications
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- Published on 29 January 2021
Atmospheric pressure plasma jets generated using noble gases have been the focus of intense investigation for over two decades due to their unique physicochemical properties and their suitability for treating living tissues to elicit a controlled biological response. Such devices enable the generation of a non-equilibrium plasma to be spatially separated from its downstream point of application, simultaneously providing inherent safety, stability and reactivity. Underpinning key plasma mediated biological applications are the reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) created when molecular gases interact with the noble gas plasma, yielding a complex yet highly reactive chemical mixture. The interplay between the plasma physics, fluid dynamics and plasma chemistry ultimately dictates the chemical composition of the RONS arriving at a biological target.
EPJD has appointed new Editor-in-Chief Almut Beige
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- Published on 19 January 2021
The publishers of European Physical Journal D: Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Editor-in-Chief, Dr Almut Beige, Head of the Theoretical Physics Group at the University of Leeds, UK, effective January 2021. She will be responsible for the fields of photonics, quantum optics and quantum information of the journal, and succeeds Prof Tommaso Calarco, who steps down after three years in this role.
Dr Almut Beige is an expert in Quantum Optics and Quantum Photonics. Since completing her PhD in Goettingen, she has been fascinated with the often very strange implications of quantum physics. Applications of her research range from quantum computing to quantum metrology and quantum sensing. She has been a member of the Editorial Board for EPJD since 2015.
EPJ D Highlight - Characterising cold fusion in 2D models
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- Published on 15 December 2020
A new 2D modelling approach has been used to directly calculate how hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium after capturing muons
Progress towards ‘cold fusion,’ where nuclear fusion can occur at close to room temperatures, has now been at a standstill for decades. However, an increasing number of studies are now proposing that the reaction could be triggered more easily through a mechanism involving muons – elementary particles with the same charge as electrons, but with around 200 times their mass. Through a study published in EPJ D, researchers led by Francisco Caruso at the Brazilian Centre for Physical Research have shown theoretically how this process would unfold within 2D systems, without any need for approximations.
EPJ D Highlight - Optimising laser-driven electron acceleration
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- Published on 03 December 2020
A new paper examines how tuning aspects of a powerful laser beam can affect the acceleration of electrons, attempting to find the recipe for maximum net energy gain.
The interaction between lasers and matter is at the forefront of new investigations into fundamental physics as well as forming a potential bedrock for new technological innovations. One of the initiatives spearheading this investigation is the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) project. Here the project’s High-Power Laser System (HPLS) — the world’s most powerful laser—is just one of the tools driving electron acceleration with lasers, Direct Laser Acceleration (DLA). In a new paper published in EPJ D, Etele Molnár, ELI-NP, Bucharest, and co-authors study and review the characteristics of electron acceleration in a vacuum caused by the highest-power laser pulses achievable today looking for the key to maximum net energy gain.
EPJ D Highlight - Identifying biomolecule fragments in ionising radiation
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- Published on 28 October 2020
Research published in EPJ D has revealed how the nature of biomolecule fragmentation varies with the energies of electrons produced when living cells are irradiated with heavy ions.
When living cells are bombarded with fast, heavy ions, their interactions with water molecules can produce randomly scattered ‘secondary’ electrons with a wide range of energies. These electrons can then go on to trigger potentially damaging reactions in nearby biological molecules, producing electrically charged fragments. So far, however, researchers have yet to determine the precise energies at which secondary electrons produce certain fragments. In a new study published in EPJ D, researchers in Japan led by Hidetsugu Tsuchida at Kyoto University define for the first time the precise exact ranges in which positively and negatively charged fragments can be produced.
EPJ D Topical review - Confining and compressing the atom
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- Published on 27 October 2020
A new Review article in EPJD from Jean-Patrick Connerade (Imperial College London and European Academy EASAL Paris) presents a brief introduction to the physics of confined atoms. The subject has acquired importance in the areas of endohedral fullerenes, quantum dots, bubbles in solids (e.g. helium bubbles in the walls of nuclear reactors), atoms trapped in zeolites, impurities in solids, etc. Confining and compressing the atom is considered from the outset as a problem of fundamental atomic physics inherent to basic models such as the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock approximations to many-electron atoms.
EPJ D Highlight - Slowing light in an optical cavity with mechanical resonators and mirrors
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- Published on 15 October 2020
Theoretical physicists Kamran Ullah and Hameed Ullah have shown how a position-dependent mass optomechanical system involving a cavity between two mirrors, one attached to a resonator, can enhance induced transparency and reduce the speed of light.
We are all taught at high school that the speed of light through a vacuum is about 300000 km/s, which means that a beam from Earth takes about 2.5 seconds to reach the Moon. It naturally moves more slowly through transparent objects, however, and scientists have found ways to slow it dramatically. Optomechanics, or the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with mechanical systems, is a relatively new and effective way of approaching this. Theoretical physicists Kamran Ullah from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and Hameed Ullah from the Institute of Physics, Porto Alegre, Brazil have now demonstrated how light is slowed in a position-based mass optomechanical system. This work has been published in EPJ D.
