# Journal of Plasma Physics (J PLASMA PHYS)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

## Journal description

Journal of Plasma Physics publishes primary research articles in plasma physics both theoretical and experimental and its applications. Basic topics include the fundamental physics of plasmas ionization kinetic theory particle orbits stochastic dynamics wave propagation solitons stability shock waves transport heating and diagnostics. Applications include fusion laboratory plasmas and communications devices laser plasmas technological plasmas space physics and astrophysics.

## Impact Factor Rankings

2016 Impact Factor Available summer 2017 0.864 0.739 0.755 0.944 1.078 0.775 0.579 0.661 0.748 1.037 0.602 0.61 0.645 0.649 0.837 0.761 0.85 0.516 0.661 0.552 0.615 0.712 0.489

## Impact factor over time

Impact factor
.
Year

5-year impact 0.82 >10.0 0.26 0.00 0.33 Journal of Plasma Physics website Journal of plasma physics 0022-3778 1754745 Periodical, Internet resource Journal / Magazine / Newspaper, Internet Resource

## Publisher details

• Pre-print
• Author can archive a pre-print version
• Post-print
• Author can archive a post-print version
• Conditions
• Author's Pre-print on author's personal website, departmental website, social media websites, institutional repository, non-commercial subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central, Europe PMC or arXiv
• Author's post-print on author's personal website on acceptance of publication
• Author's post-print on departmental website, institutional repository, non-commercial subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central, Europe PMC or arXiv, after a 6 months embargo
• Publisher's version/PDF cannot be used
• Published abstract may be deposited
• Pre-print to record acceptance for publication
• Publisher copyright and source must be acknowledged with set statement
• Must link to publisher version
• Publisher last reviewed on 07/10/2014
• This policy is an exception to the default policies of 'Cambridge University Press (CUP)'
• Classification
green

## Publications in this journal

• ##### Article: Characteristics of the resonant charge transfer in strongly coupled plasmas including quantum and shielding effects

No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Floating surface potential of spherical dust grains in magnetized plasmas
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation study of the charging processes of spherical dust grains in a magnetized plasma environment is presented. Different magnetic field strengths with corresponding electron/ion gyration radii of smaller, the same or larger size than the grain radius and the plasma Debye length are examined. The magnetized plasma is created by overlapping the simulation box with a homogeneous, constant magnetic field. The charging currents are significantly reduced in the presence of a magnetic field, resulting in a more negative grain floating potential. Indeed, the most probable electron gyration radius is always smaller than that of ions in a Maxwellian plasma: however, it is demonstrated that the situation of simultaneous magnetized electron but an unmagnetized ion charging current never exists. The simulation results do not fit with a modified orbital motion limited (OML) theory approach for this situation, since the ion current is significantly reduced due to the increase of the gyration radius in the potential field of the dust grain. For very small gyration radii, the simulation results are in good agreement with a modified OML approach for both magnetized electron and ion charging currents.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Airy-like electron plasma wave
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: In this paper, an Airy-like electron plasma wave is investigated in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of inertial electrons and static ions. Just like the optical Airy beam, the Airy-like electron plasma wave also has two interesting propagation characteristics: it has transverse acceleration and is diffraction-free, which display that the Airy-like electron plasma wave propagates along a curved trajectory and retains the basic structure for longer distances in the propagation direction, respectively. We give a numerical simulation for the electrostatic potential of the Airy-like electron plasma wave and show that, with the increase of the propagation distance, the electrostatic potential decreases in the propagation direction but increases in the transverse direction.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Weakly dissipative dust-ion acoustic wave modulation
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The modulational instability of dust-ion acoustic (DIA) waves in an unmagnetized dusty plasma is investigated in the presence of weak dissipations arising due to the low rates (compared to the ion oscillation frequency) of ionization recombination and ion loss. Based on the multiple space and time scales perturbation, a new modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation governing the evolution of modulated DIA waves is derived with a linear damping term. It is shown that the combined action of all dissipative mechanisms due to collisions between particles reveals the permitted maximum time for the occurrence of the modulational instability. The influence on the modulational instability regions of relevant physical parameters such as ion temperature, dust concentration, ionization, recombination and ion loss is numerically examined. It is also found that the recombination frequency controls the instability growth rate, whereas recombination and ion loss make the instability regions wider.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: V. D. Shafranov and Tokamaks
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: V. D. Shafranov was a key person in the fusion program. The paper presents the recollections of one of his close colleagues about Shafranov’s impact on the early days of tokamak research.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Orbits of magnetized charged particles in parabolic and inverse electrostatic potentials
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Analytic solutions are presented for the orbit of a charged particle in the combination of a uniform axial magnetic field and parabolic electrostatic potential. These trajectories are shown to correspond to the sum of two individually rotating vectors with one vector rotating at a constant fast frequency and the other rotating in the same sense but with a constant slow frequency. These solutions are related to Penning trap orbits and to stochastic orbits. If the lengths of the two rotating vectors are identical, the particle has zero canonical angular momentum in which case the particle orbit will traverse the origin. If the potential has an inverse dependence on distance from the source of the potential, the particle can impact the source. Axis-encircling orbits are where the length of the vector associated with the fast frequency is longer than the vector associated with the slow frequency. Non-axis-encircling orbits are the other way around.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Determination of plasma temperature of copper vapour laser
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The output power and the temperature profile of a copper vapour laser were investigated versus frequency with various kinds of back mirror in its resonator cavity. A semi-experimental method was used for measuring the plasma temperature and obtaining the temperature profile with various back mirrors. The obtained plasma temperature through this method has good agreement with the operational temperature of the laser.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Stereoscopic imaging of dusty plasmas
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The fundamentals of stereoscopy and their application to dusty plasmas are described. It is shown that stereoscopic methods allow us to measure the three-dimensional particle positions and trajectories with high spatial and temporal resolution. The underlying technical implications are presented and requirements and limitations are discussed. The stereoscopic method is demonstrated for dust particles in dust-density waves under microgravity conditions.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Study of collisionless high-energy charged particle losses for stellarators in presence of resonant perturbations of the magnetic field
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Using a numerical code based on guiding centre drift equations, collisionless high energy particle losses, and in particular ${\it\alpha}$ -particle losses, are studied for a number of stellarator configurations in the presence of magnetic islands caused by resonant perturbations of magnetic surfaces. Standard stellarator configurations, as well as an optimized quasi-helically symmetric stellarator, are used in this study. It is found that the role of islands in collisionless ${\it\alpha}$ -particle losses is practically negligible for standard stellarators, however, for optimized stellarators, islands can have a negative impact.
No preview · Article · Feb 2016 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Implementation of Hamada principle in calculations of nested 3-D equilibria
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Plasma confinement is based on the use of nested toroidal magnetic surfaces. In axisymmetric configurations the nestedness is provided by the existence of a flux function describing the magnetic surfaces explicitly. In the case of a three-dimensional magnetic field, the nested surfaces represent an exception. More typically, magnetic islands are formed on the resonant surfaces. The islands could degrade the plasma performance. The rigorous condition for the existence of nested surfaces without islands was formulated by Hamada ( Nucl. Fusion , vol. 2, 1962, pp. 23–37) but was not implemented directly into numerical codes used, for example, for designing the stellarator configurations. This paper introduces a method of implementation of the Hamada principle in numerical algorithms. The proposed approach allows for simple linearized equilibrium equations (LEE) and potentially very efficient three-dimensional calculations of nested equilibria.
No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: A super-cusp divertor configuration for tokamaks (vol 81, 495810516, 2015)

No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Plasma stability theory including the resistive wall effects
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Plasma stabilization due to a nearby conducting wall can provide access to better performance in some scenarios in tokamaks. This was proved by experiments with an essential gain in ${\it\beta}$ and demonstrated as a long-lasting effect at sufficiently fast plasma rotation in the DIII-D tokamak (see, for example, Strait et al. , Nucl. Fusion , vol. 43, 2003, pp. 430–440). The rotational stabilization is the central topic of this review, though eventually the mode rotation gains significance. The analysis is based on the first-principle equations describing the energy balance with dissipation in the resistive wall. The method emphasizes derivation of the dispersion relations for the modes which are faster than the conventional resistive wall modes, but slower than the ideal magnetohydrodynamics modes. Both the standard thin wall and ideal-wall approximations are not valid in this range. Here, these are replaced by an approach incorporating the skin effect in the wall. This new element in the stability theory makes the energy sink a nonlinear function of the complex growth rate. An important consequence is that a mode rotating above a critical level can provide a damping effect sufficient for instability suppression. Estimates are given and applications are discussed.
No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Nonlinear fast sausage waves in homogeneous magnetic flux tubes
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: We consider fast sausage waves in straight homogeneous magnetic tubes. The plasma motion is described by the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations in the cold plasma approximation. We derive the nonlinear Schrodinger equation describing the nonlinear evolution of an envelope of a carrier wave. The coefficients of this equation are expressed in terms Bessel and modified Bessel functions. They are calculated numerically for various values of parameters. In particular, we show that the criterion for the onset of the modulational or Benjamin-Fair instability is satisfied. The implication of the obtained results for solar physics is discussed.
No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Saturation mechanism in a two-stream free-electron laser
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The effect of a guide field on the saturation mechanism in a two-stream free-electron laser (FEL) is verified. Two monoenergetic electron beams with a vanishing pitch-angle spread are considered. Nonlinear wave-particle interaction is described by a set of coupled differential equations in a 1-D approximation. Output power is presented as a function of the axial distance. It was found that through using a focusing mechanism, the two-stream FEL reached the saturation regime in a shorter axial distance in comparison with the case of no focusing mechanism.
No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics
• ##### Article: Energetic electrons generated during solar flares
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The Sun is a giant particle accelerator. During solar flares, magnetic field energy stored in the corona is suddenly released and transferred to local heating of the coronal plasma, mass motions (e.g. jets) and the generation of energetic particles, i.e. electrons, protons and heavy ions. Basically, a flare occurs as a local enhancement of the emission of electromagnetic radiation from the radio up to the ${\it\gamma}$ -ray range on the Sun. That indicates the production of energetic electrons during flares. NASA’s RHESSI mission has the aim to investigate electron acceleration processes by studying the Sun’s X-ray and ${\it\gamma}$ -ray emission with high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution, i.e. by means of imaging spectroscopy. A substantial part of the energy released during a flare is carried by these energetic electrons. Apart from them, solar energetic particles, i.e. protons and heavy ions, and coronal mass ejections play an important role in the energy budget of a flare. Here, we focus on electron acceleration. The way in which $10^{36}$ electrons are accelerated up to energies beyond 30 keV is one of the open questions in solar physics. A flare is considered as the manifestation of magnetic reconnection in the solar corona. Which mechanisms lead to the production of energetic electrons in the magnetic reconnection region is discussed in this paper. Two of them are described in more detail.
No preview · Article · Dec 2015 · Journal of Plasma Physics