Wakefield acceleration in planetary atmospheres: A possible source of MeV electrons. The collisionless case

Intense electromagnetic pulses interacting with a plasma can create a wake of plasma oscillations. Electrons trapped in such oscillations can be accelerated under certain conditions to very high energies. We study the optimal conditions for the wakefield acceleration to produce MeV electrons in plan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of atmospheric and solar-terrestrial physics Vol. 172; pp. 69 - 74
Main Authors Arrayás, M., Cubero, D., Montanya, J., Seviour, R., Trueba, J.L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2018
Subjects
MeV electrons
TGF's
Wakefield acceleration
Wakefield acceleration
MeV electrons
TGF's
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Summary:Intense electromagnetic pulses interacting with a plasma can create a wake of plasma oscillations. Electrons trapped in such oscillations can be accelerated under certain conditions to very high energies. We study the optimal conditions for the wakefield acceleration to produce MeV electrons in planetary plasmas under collisionless conditions. The conditions for the optimal plasma densities can be found in the Earth atmosphere at higher altitudes than 10–15 km, which are the altitudes where lightning leaders can take place.
ISSN:1364-6826
1879-1824
DOI:10.1016/j.jastp.2018.03.019