Laplacian instability of planar streamer ionization fronts---An example of pulled front analysis

Partial differential equations of mathematical physics and other areas of application (35Q99) Stability problems for infinite-dimensional dissipative dynamical systems (37L15) Numerical approximation of eigenvalues and of other parts of the spectrum of ordinary differential operators (34L16)

Abstract: Streamer ionization fronts are pulled fronts propagating into a linearly unstable state; the spatial decay of the initial condition of a planar front selects dynamically one specific long time attractor out of a continuous family. A transverse stability analysis has to take these features into account. In this paper we introduce a framework for this transverse stability analysis, involving stable and unstable manifolds in a weighted space. Within this framework, a numerical dynamical systems method for the calculation of the dispersion relation as an eigenvalue problem is defined and dispersion curves for different values of the electron diffusion constant and of the electric field ahead of the front are derived. Numerical solutions of the initial value problem confirm the eigenvalue calculations. The numerical work is complemented with analytical expressions for the dispersion relation in the limit of small and large wave numbers and with a fit formula for intermediate wave numbers. This empirical fit supports the conjecture that the smallest unstable wave length of the Laplacian instability is proportional to the diffusion length that characterizes the leading edge of the pulled ionization front.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(8)

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

DSTool

This page was built for publication: Laplacian instability of planar streamer ionization fronts---An example of pulled front analysis

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1015420)