Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory
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| Цитувати: | Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory / V.P. Silin // Укр. фіз. журн. — 2010. — Т. 55, № 1. — С. 154-157. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв. — англ. |
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irk-123456789-132992010-11-05T12:02:36Z Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory Silin, V.P. Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії 2010 Article Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory / V.P. Silin // Укр. фіз. журн. — 2010. — Т. 55, № 1. — С. 154-157. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв. — англ. 2071-0194 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/13299 en Відділення фізики і астрономії НАН України |
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Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії |
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Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії Silin, V.P. Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
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Silin, V.P. |
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Silin, V.P. |
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Silin, V.P. |
| title |
Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
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Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
| title_full |
Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
| title_fullStr |
Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
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Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory |
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some steps on the way of the formation of plasma turbulence theory |
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Відділення фізики і астрономії НАН України |
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2010 |
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Хроніка, бібліографічна інформація, персоналії |
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http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/13299 |
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Some Steps on the Way of the Formation of Plasma Turbulence Theory / V.P. Silin // Укр. фіз. журн. — 2010. — Т. 55, № 1. — С. 154-157. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв. — англ. |
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| fulltext |
V.P. SILIN
SOME STEPS ON THE WAY OF THE FORMATION
OF PLASMA TURBULENCE THEORY
V.P. SILIN
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences
(53, Leninskii Prosp., Moscow 119991, Russia; e-mail: silin@ sci. lebedev. ru )c©2010
I was lucky in my life. I heard the course of lectures by
N.N. Bogoliubov in the second half of the 1940s given
by him for future physicist-theorists at the Faculty of
Physics of Moscow State University. This course was
based on his book “Problems of Dynamical Theory in
Statistical Physics” published in 1946. I was under the
especially strong impression of the solution of the prob-
lem of irreversibility of the kinetic description. As well
known, N.N. Bogoliubov transferred this problem from
the Boltzmann kinetic equation onto the boundary con-
dition of the weakening of correlations of many-particle
distribution functions. In this case, the boundary con-
dition by N.N. Bogoliubov is subordinated to the state-
ment of problems concerning the study of the future,
which introduces the irreversibility – an increase of the
entropy. I note that a change of such boundary condition
for the application it to studying the past simply replaces
the sign of the Boltzmann collision integral in the deriva-
tion of the Boltzmann equation. All the said by N.N. Bo-
goliubov rendered an indelible influence on my student’s
mind loaded by the history of the discussion which ac-
companied the appearance of the Boltzmann equation.
Since that time, a number of my results were explicitly
and implicitly connected with the N.N. Bogoliubov’s ap-
proach to the substantiation of physical kinetics.
In the present communication, I should like to pay
attention to the expediency to use the Bogoliubov’s ap-
proach to the substantiation and the development of ki-
netic theory in such a trend of physics as the theory of
plasma turbulence. There, as it seems to me, a lot of
questions remained outside of the field of researchers’
attention. In order to promote the awakening of the in-
terest in this branch of science advanced in the USSR, I
restore some steps of the history of its formation. I am
sure that it is actual today, because the experimental dis-
covery of the plasma turbulence was the result of efforts
of physicists in Moscow and Khar’kov. It is the example
which is worthy to be imitated in our time period of the
complicated geopolicy.
Sufficiently many years were over, but I well remem-
ber the pleasant reminiscence of the latest (but old
now) news about that E.K. Zavoiskii who left Kazan for
Moscow to work at I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic
Energy named earlier the Laboratory of Measuring De-
vices of the AS of USSR (LIPAN in common parlance
among Russian physicists) became to study the heat-
ing of plasma. It seemed to me that my exception-
ally theoretical interest in plasma did not correspond
completely to the circle of problems considered by the
mode legislators in the field of controlled thermonuclear
fusion which were leaders in Moscow. However, this
point did not hamper me to create the own intellectual
world which was closer to real experiments in some as-
pects than the world of ideas of FIAN’s experimenters
(FIAN stands for the Russian short name of Lebedev
Physical Institute of the RAS). The possibility of such
a freedom was characteristic of the staff of the theo-
retical department of the FIAN, which was a reference
point for other departments. My stay in the plasmoc-
racy, as well as the term to seek for sufficiently profound
experimental results, was else short in time. This ex-
plains why the news about E.K. Zavoiskii was significant
for me.
His name was very weighty among the comparatively
young (at that time) physicists. I can surely assert that
he was already a man-legend. Of course, the experimen-
tal discovery of electron paramagnetic resonance by him
made the position of Evgenii Konstantinovich Zavoiskii
in the Soviet physics heroic. His legendariness was also
supported, for example, by the defense of his doctoral
dissertation which was associated with the initial nega-
tive attitude to his work. However, when he repeated
the results included into his dissertation at the institute
guided by P.L. Kapitsa, the dissertation was accepted for
the defense and then was successfully defended. At that
time, the physical youth was collecting, by maturing, its
divine pantheon. E.K. Zavoiskii had already occupied
the deserved place in this pantheon. He had already
been considered the experimenter of God, though this
term can seem unnatural for the practically fully athe-
istic young physicists in the second half of the XX-th
century. But it was just so.
154 ISSN 2071-0194. Ukr. J. Phys. 2010. Vol. 55, No. 1
SOME STEPS ON THE WAY OF THE FORMATION OF PLASMA TURBULENCE THEORY
I note that the staff of researchers in the field of
controlled thermonuclear fusion at the Kurchatov Insti-
tute, where E.K. Zavoiskii found himself, was consid-
ered leading in the USSR. However, their experimental
scientific results which were met initially with enthusi-
asm turned out too far from the desired aim. There-
fore, any outsider could see no tragic element in the
invitation of E.K. Zavoiskii by I.V. Kurchatov to take
participation in works on the peaceful thermonuclear
fusion. But such an element did be, and I.V. Kur-
chatov as a highly experienced man would understand
it. The matter was in the presence of a compact en-
ergetic group of researchers of the thermonuclear fu-
sion at the Kurchatov Institute. This group supported
its leaders, L.A. Artsimovich and M.A. Leontovich, in
their comprehension of the essence of plasma physics
studied by them for a significant period. Their results
obtained certain recognition in the USSR and abroad.
In this situation, it seemed that the appearance of a
“novice” changes almost nothing. However, the above-
mentioned news was related to the time when E.K. Za-
voiskii had worked at the Kurchatov Institute (i.e., at
the LIPAN) for several years. By antedating, one can
say that the group engaged in the controlled thermonu-
clear fusion was separated into two clans, respectively
Artsimovich’ clan and Zavoiskii’s clan, with ordinary
interclan trifles and the permanent gradual develop-
ment of science. For an external observer, all things
were good. But the estimate of an internal (at the
LIPAN) observer was different. I cite the article by
S.V. Mirnov in “Collection of Reminiscences about Aca-
demician E.K. Zavoiskii. The Magician of Experiment”
(Nauka, Moscow,1993): “Clans of Artsimovich and Za-
voiskii were definitely in opposition to each other as for
the thermonuclear fusion . . . The department of Art-
simovich suffered painfully from the intrusion into its
kitchen-garden”.
Eventually, the delayed-action bomb had exploded. In
his annual survey, the leader of the Division of Physics
and Astronomy of the AS of the USSR L.A. Artsi-
movich declared the discovery of the turbulent heating
of plasma by the group of E.K. Zavoiskii. However,
then at an all-Moscow seminar held at the Kurchatov
Institute in 1965, A.I. Karchevskii made communication
bearing the unmasking character. He asserted that he re-
peated the experiment made by E.K. Zavoiskii’s group,
and the new results indicate that only a small part of
the whole plasma volume is heated, whereas the remain-
ing part is not. E.K. Zavoiskii answered at once that
A.I. Karchevskii could not measure the heating of the
main part of the plasma volume, because the diamag-
netic effect was not registered. But the leadership hur-
ried and approved a commission for the consideration of
technical details. The Moscow plasmocracy boiled up.
The commission reported about the inaccuracy of pre-
vious measurements and expressed its doubt about the
turbulent heating. Fortunately, then A.I. Karchevskii
increased the voltage on his condensers and obtained
the turbulent heating. However, the words, which were
“heretical” for admirers of E.K. Zavoiskii who occupied
his place in the pantheon by right, were already pro-
nounced.
The support of E.K. Zavoiskii appeared in Khar’kov
at the Khar’kov Physico-Technical Institute. At the be-
ginning of the 1960s, V.A. Suprunenko, E.D. Volkov,
and E.A. Sukhomlin discovered that the resistance of a
hard-current gas discharge increases at its heating. The
Khar’kov physicists had heard that E.K. Zavoiskii was
developing, in Moscow, a method of heating of plasma
with electric current which is based on the use of “col-
lective interactions”. By the way, the role of collec-
tive effects in the interpretation of the experiments of
the V.A. Suprunenko’s group was indicated by Ya.B.
Fainberg. E.K. Zavoiskii himself followed just this idea
of collective oscillations.
Decisive for lessening the tense situation concerning
the role of collective processes in the heating of plasma
was the fact that the Zavoiskii–Suprunenko contact
turned out characteristic of Evgenii Konstantinovich;
namely, it was noble. V.A. Suprunenko wrote about
the behavior of Evgenii Konstantinovich Zavoiskii: “he
not only did not hamper us, but, on the contrary, he
rendered the huge moral and even material support”.
Further, he wrote: “Evgenii Konstantinovich shared his
ideas and plans of subsequent experiments with me,
prompted some top-priority tasks, and even permit-
ted his co-workers to give us some very necessary de-
tails. Since that time for at least one decade, our
small Khar’kov collective worked in a close contact with
the laboratory of E.K. Zavoiskii”. (See the article of
V.A. Suprunenko in “Collection of Reminiscences about
Academician E.K. Zavoiskii. The Magician of Experi-
ment” (Nauka, Moscow,1993).
One of the results of this work is discovery
No. 112: Phenomenon of turbulent heating and
anomalous resistance of plasma – Claim OT-7595 on
30.03.1970. The discovery priority on 9.09.1961. Pub-
lished on 23.10.72. The authors: M.V. Babykin,
E.D. Volkov, P.P. Gavrin, B.A. Demidov, E.K. Za-
voiskii, L.I. Rudakov, V.A. Skoryupin, V.A. Suprunenko,
E.A. Sukhomlin, Ya.B. Fainberg, S.D. Fanchenko. In
what follows, we will use the term discovery No. 112.
ISSN 2071-0194. Ukr. J. Phys. 2010. Vol. 55, No. 1 155
V.P. SILIN
We emphasize that the 1960s were years when the in-
tent attention of physicist-theorists from the plasmoc-
racy was given to the plasma turbulence which was some-
times mentioned as collective processes in plasma. In
our case, we mean the following. As long ago as in the
first half of the XX-th century, the American physicists
I. Langmuir and L. Tonks discovered specific plasma os-
cillations, in which many particles of plasma take par-
ticipation and cause them. By the middle of the XX-
th century, a lot of collective oscillations were found.
The magnetoacoustic and ion-acoustic branches of col-
lective plasma oscillations were sufficiently well known.
Just these branches of oscillations were related to the re-
sults of experiments on the anomalous heating of plasma
made by the group of E.K. Zavoiskii in Moscow and on
the anomalous resistance of plasma made by the group
of V.A. Suprunenko in Khar’kov resulted in the above-
mentioned discovery. For example, the first work on the
anomalous heating of plasma considered magnetoacous-
tic waves [M.V. Babykin, P.P. Gavrin, E.K. Zavoiskii,
L.I. Rudakov, and V.A. Skoryupin, Zh. Eksp. Teor.
Fiz. 43, 411, (1962)], and then the ion-acoustic turbu-
lence was taken into account [see the review: E.K. Za-
voiskii and L.I. Rudakov, Plasma Physics – Collective
Processes in Plasma and Turbulent Heating (Znanie,
Moscow, 1967)].
Let us now turn to the theory. In 1961–1962, three
theoretical works [1] were published, in which the equa-
tion named quasilinear was proposed for the descrip-
tion of a nonlinear interaction of waves and particles of
plasma. We note that one of the works lay in the port-
folio of the Editorial Board of Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. one
year, being reported verbally else earlier. The necessity
of the quasilinear equation (though such a term was not
used by the authors of the first of these three articles
which attracted the attention of many researchers) for
the comprehension of the discovery made by E.K. Za-
voiskii was obvious. However, the quasilinear approxi-
mation was in poor agreement with experimental data
of the works initiated by discovery No. 112. Namely,
the main difference consisted in that the high-intensity
ion-acoustic fluctuations arising in plasma with a current
have a rather wide spectrum.
However, somewhat later on, it was proposed [2] one
more equation. As distinct from the quasilinear equation
based on the Cherenkov effect, it involves the simulated
scattering of fluctuating ion-acoustic waves on ions, by
describing their balance. This new equation allowed one
to obtain a comparatively wide spectrum of fluctuations
of ion-acoustic waves in plasma positioned in a constant
electric field. This spectrum was confirmed experimen-
tally in many works, because the followers of the authors
of discovery No. 112 appeared in a number of countries
of the world. The spectrum was called the Kadomtsev–
Petviashvili spectrum.
It is worth to note that, despite a definite success,
the theory of the turbulence spectrum related to discov-
ery No. 112 turned out unfinished in the sense that no
angular distribution of turbulent fluctuations was calcu-
lated, though the mathematical tools for the description
of the physical phenomenon itself were available. At
that time, I traced attentively the development of the
theory of discovery No. 112, but I was retained from
the work on the necessary theory by the scandalous at-
mosphere associated with this problem. Therefore, the
facts that E.K. Zavoiskii changed the direction of his
studies and then left the Kurchatov Institute seemed to
me natural. The victory costed him very much. His
brilliant report at the International conference on con-
trolled thermonuclear fusion at Culham (Great Britain)
in 1965 produced a strong impression on the interna-
tional audience and led to the development of a separate
trend in plasma physics. In the world physics, the Za-
voiskii name sounded very weighty. But in his Mother-
land, the undercarpet play deprived him of the possibil-
ity to present the scientific reports at foreign conferences.
Moreover, this was realized in the most impudent form.
To go through such a situation is especially painful for
delicate persons. I note that Evgenii Konstantinovich
was one of the most delicate men. This delicacy re-
moved him from science and then from life. The civil
funeral rites occurred at the FIAN which is positioned
on the side of Moscow opposite to the Kurchatov Insti-
tute.
On those sad days, no exhaustive interpretation of dis-
covery No. 112 was available yet. But the time was pass-
ing. During some years, the emotions decreased or dis-
appeared together with their carriers. The plasmocracy
continued to be engaged in its matter, but the memory
of discovery No. 112 was alive. This memory required
the comprehension from science.
In 1982, a theoretical work was published in Zh. Eksp.
Teor. Fiz. [3]. Its authors decided on the construc-
tion of a theory of ion-acoustic turbulence which consid-
ers simultaneously the Cherenkov turbulence-generating
interaction of electrons with plasma and the simulated
scattering of ion-acoustic waves on ions of plasma, which
stabilizes the ion-acoustic turbulence by Kadomtsev and
Petviashvili. So, such a theory included both plasma ef-
fects which were used separately for the explanation of
discovery No. 112 in the time when E.K. Zavoiskii was
living.
156 ISSN 2071-0194. Ukr. J. Phys. 2010. Vol. 55, No. 1
SOME STEPS ON THE WAY OF THE FORMATION OF PLASMA TURBULENCE THEORY
The authors of the mentioned article worked at the
FIAN and were not afraid to publish long formu-
las in their works following the natural traditions of
I.E. Tamm’s school. That is, a comparatively awkward
theory was an “ordinary” thing for the FIAN’s theorists,
though it was ostracized in datzybaos at the Kurchatov
Institute. In brief, we have constructed a relatively in-
volved theoretical model and confirmed, in fact, the dis-
tribution over frequencies obtained by Kadomtsev and
Petviashvili. We also calculated the angular distribu-
tion of turbulent pulsations, being naturally free from
the divergence – “infinity” – obtained by L.I. Rudakov
and L.V. Korablev [4]. It becomes clear that the earlier
proposed elements of a model of ion-acoustic turbulence
are consistent and allow one to formulate the single phys-
ical theoretical model.
However, it was not a finish. Sometimes, by flying
in an aircraft and by remembering the latest confer-
ence on plasma, I thought suddenly: the Kadomtsev–
Petviashvili model is suitable only for a plasma with ions
of one sort and, strictly speaking, is not proper even for
deuterium-tritium plasma. In 1992, S.A. Uryupin and
I published the theory of ion-acoustic turbulence of a
plasma with ions of two sorts [5].
The found similarity and difference of the results con-
cerning the spectrum of ion-acoustic turbulence in the
model of plasma with ions of two sorts at solving a num-
ber of problems, as compared with the results of the
model with ions of one sort, strengthen our assurance
in the significance of our theory. At the same time,
it became clear that the turbulence related to discov-
ery No. 112 is the phenomenon potentially very rich for
the study. I mention that discovery No. 112 was met
by the leading plasmocracy very coldly without, simply
speaking, a due respect to experiment. But it is quite
obvious now that discovery No. 112 involves undoubt-
edly the properties of the plasma turbulence which have
not attracted the proper attention till now. This is seen
from the potentialities of the modern theory used for
its comprehension. Therefore, we may surely think that
the scandal at the LIPAN in the middle of the past cen-
tury will else more enrich the plasma science and will
recall about the delicate style of the great worker of sci-
ence who turned out redundant at the LIPAN, Evgenii
Konstantinovich Zavoiskii, who was called “the magician
of experiment” and was an extraordinary person in the
Soviet physics. Without any doubt, his human prop-
erties became the base of the fruitful collaboration of
E.K. Zavoiskii’s Moscow school and V.A. Suprunenko’s
Khar’kov school which had led to discovery No. 112 and
awakened theorists’ thoughts.
In conclusion, I emphasize that I would hope for that
the use of N.N. Bogoliubov’s approach to the theoretical
clarification of properties of the plasma turbulence will
play its role.
1. Yu.A. Romanov and G.F. Filippov, Zh. Eksp. Teor.
Fiz. 40, 123 (1961); A.A. Vedenov, E.P. Velikhov, and
R.Z. Sagdeev, Nuclear Fusion, 1, 82 (1961); W.E. Drum-
mond and D. Pines, Nuclear Fusion Suppl. 3, 1049 (1962).
2. B.B. Kadomtsev and V.I. Petviashvili. Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz.
43, 2234 (1962); V.I. Petviashvili, Dokl. AN SSSR, 153,
1218 (1964).
3. V.Yu. Bychenkov and V.P. Silin, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz., 82,
1886, (1982).
4. L.I. Rudakov and L.V. Korablev, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz., 50,
220 (1966).
5. V.P. Silin and S.A. Uryupin, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz., 100, 78
(1992).
Received 26.10.09.
Translated from Russian by V.V. Kukhtin
ISSN 2071-0194. Ukr. J. Phys. 2010. Vol. 55, No. 1 157
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