Electrostatic compressive and rarefactive shocks and solitons in relativistic plasmas occurring in polar regions of pulsar

The electrostatic shocks and solitons are studied in weakly relativistic and collisional electron-positron-ion plasmas occurring in polar regions of pulsar. The plasma system is composed of relativistically streaming electrons, positrons while ions are taken to be stationary. Dissipative effects in the system are due to collision phenomena among the constituents of relativistic plasma. Nonlinear dynamics of the dissipation and dispersion dominated relativistic plasma systems are governed by Korteweg-de Vries Burger (KdVB) and Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equations respectively. Numerical results, exploring the effects of plasma parameters on the profile of nonlinear waves are expedited graphically for illustration. Positron to electron temperature ratio plays the role of a decisive parameter. It is noticed that compressive shocks and solitons evolve in the system if the positron to electron temperature ratio is less than a critical value. However, there exists a threshold value of positron to electron temperature ratio beyond which the system supports the rarefactive shocks and solitons. The results may have importance in the relativistic plasmas of pulsar magnetosphere.     

Mechanical Behaviour of Reservoir Rock Under Brine Saturation

Acoustic emissions (AE) and stress–strain curve analysis are well accepted ways of analysing crack propagation and monitoring the various failure stages (such as crack closure, crack initiation level during rock failure under compression) of rocks and rock-like materials. This paper presents details and results of experimental investigations conducted for characterizing the brittle failure processes induced in a rock due to monocyclic uniaxial compression on loading of two types of sandstone core samples saturated in NaCl brines of varying concentration (0, 2, 5, 10 and 15 % NaCl by weight). The two types of sandstone samples were saturated under vacuum for more than 45 days with the respective pore fluid to allow them to interact with the rocks. It was observed that the uniaxial compressive strength and stress–strain behaviour of the rock specimens changed with increasing NaCl concentration in the saturating fluid. The acoustic emission patterns also varied considerably for increasing ionic strength of the saturating brines. These observations can be attributed to the deposition of NaCl crystals in the rock’s pore spaces as well some minor geo-chemical interactions between the rock minerals and the brine. The AE pattern variations could also be partly related to the higher conductivity of the ionic strength of the high-NaCl concentration brine as it is able to transfer more acoustic energy from the cracks to the AE sensors.     

Ion-temperature-gradient driven modes in dust-contaminated plasma with nonthermal electron distribution and dust charge fluctuations

The effect of nonthermal electrons on ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) driven modes is investigated in the presence of variable dust charge and ion shear flow. The dust charge fluctuating expression is obtained in the presence of kappa distributed electrons. A dispersion relation is derived and analyzed numerically by choosing space plasma parameters of Jupiter/Saturn magnetospheres. It is found that the presence of nonthermal electrons population reduces the growth rate of ITG mode driven instability. The effects of ion temperature, electron density and magnetic field variation on the growth rate of ITG instability are presented numerically. It is also pointed out that the present results will be useful to understand the ITG driven modes with variable dust charge and kappa distributed electrons, present in most of the space plasma environments.