🔬 Category

physics.plasm-ph

725 papers

Plasma physics explores the behavior of the fourth state of matter, a superheated soup of charged particles that makes up most of the visible universe. From the fusion power we hope to harness on Earth to the glowing auroras and distant stars above, this field investigates how these energetic gases interact with magnetic fields and light. It is a dynamic area where extreme conditions reveal fundamental laws of nature in ways solid matter never can.

At Gist.Science, we bridge the gap between these complex discoveries and curious minds by processing every new preprint from arXiv in this category. We transform dense, technical research into clear, plain-language explanations alongside detailed summaries, ensuring that breakthroughs in plasma dynamics and fusion energy are accessible to everyone. Below are the latest papers in plasma physics, curated and simplified for your reading.

🔬 atomic physics

Tracking electron capture processes in classical molecular dynamics simulations for spectral line broadening in plasmas

This paper introduces a new classical molecular dynamics algorithm that precisely identifies electron capture events and stable orbits for ions with charges Z ≥ 1, thereby enabling accurate tracking of electric microfield time-histories for spectral line broadening calculations and validating its results against potential energy and atomic kinetic simulation methods.

D. González-Herrero, G. Pérez-Callejo, R. Florido, M. A. Gigosos2026-07-20
🔬 physics

Surrogate modeling of drift-reduced Braginskii turbulence with resistivity-conditioned Koopman neural operators

This paper develops resistivity-conditioned Koopman neural operators as fast surrogate models for three-dimensional drift-reduced Braginskii plasma turbulence, demonstrating their ability to accurately reproduce key short-horizon statistical features across varying resistivity regimes while highlighting persistent challenges in long-term dynamical stability and vorticity prediction.

Ameir Shaa, Kyungtak Lim, Long Shan Chan, Claude Guet2026-07-20
🔭 astrophysics

Ultra-long simulations of collisionless relativistic shocks in front-comoving frame: evidence for a steady state and its properties

This paper presents ultra-long 2D3V PIC simulations of unmagnetized relativistic pair shocks in a front-comoving frame, providing strong evidence for a steady downstream state characterized by soliton-like magnetic structures and limited Fermi acceleration, while confirming that true power-law tails do not form.

Mikhail Garasev, Evgeny Derishev2026-07-17
🔬 physics

An asymptotic-preserving five-moment two-species plasma model coupled to an external magnetohydrodynamic solver

This paper presents an asymptotic-preserving framework that couples a two-species five-moment fluid model with an external ideal magnetohydrodynamic solver to enable efficient, globally consistent simulations of collisionless space plasmas by seamlessly projecting fast kinetic dynamics onto slow MHD scales.

Magnus Deisenhofer, Aleksandr Mustonen, Simon Lautenbach, Rainer Grauer2026-07-17
🔬 atomic physics

Ionization rate vs. laser intensity determined from ion count vs. peak intensity due to neutral gas exposure to an 800 nm ultrashort pulsed laser

This study numerically inverts published time-of-flight ion spectrometer data to determine the optical cycle-averaged ionization rates of Ar, O2_2, and N2_2 as a function of local instantaneous laser intensity up to approximately 300 TW/cm2^2 for 800 nm ultrashort pulses, while recalibrating microchannel plate collection efficiencies and validating O2_2 results against multiphoton cross-section data.

Edward L. Ruden2026-07-16
🔬 atomic physics

Temperature and mean axial momentum vs. laser intensity of electrons released from O2_2 by an 800 nm ultrashort pulsed laser

This paper presents a semi-empirical model that modifies theoretical kinetic energy spectra with two adjustable parameters to describe the thermalized temperature and mean axial momentum of electrons released from O2_2 by an 800 nm ultrashort pulsed laser as a function of peak intensity, thereby providing essential initial conditions for electrodynamic fluid simulations.

Edward L. Ruden2026-07-16
🔬 physics

Boronization-enabled I-mode on EAST tokamak with an expanded density window and favorable-configuration access

This paper presents the first systematic investigation of I-mode on the EAST tokamak under boronized wall conditions, demonstrating that boronization significantly broadens the accessible density range, increases the occurrence of favorable magnetic configurations with enhanced edge shear, and establishes a new energy confinement scaling that supports the development of reactor-relevant, ELM-free fusion scenarios.

X. M. Zhong (Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China), X. L. Zou (CEA, IRFM, Saint-Paul-l (…)2026-07-16