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White-light superflares from ultra-cool stars are thought to be resulted from magnetic reconnection, but the magnetic dynamics in a fully convective star is not clear yet. In this paper, we report a stellar superflare detected with the ground wide angle camera (GWAC), along with rapid follow-ups with the F60A, Xinglong 2.16-m, and LCOGT telescopes. The effective temperature of the counterpart is estimated to be 2200 ± 50 K by the BT-Settl model, corresponding to a spectral type of L0. The R -band light curve can be modelled as a sum of three exponential decay components, where the impulsive component contributes a fraction of 23 per cent of the total energy, while the gradual and the shallower decay phases emit 42 per cent and 35 per cent of the total energy, respectively. The strong and variable Balmer narrow emission lines indicate the large amplitude flare is resulted from magnetic activity. The bolometric energy released is about 6.4 × 1033 erg, equivalent to an energy release in a duration of 143.7 h at its quiescent level. The amplitude of Δ R  = −8.6 mag (or Δ V  = −11.2 mag), placing it one of the highest amplitudes of any ultra-cool star recorded with excellent temporal resolution. We argue that a stellar flare with such rapidly decaying and huge amplitude at distances greater than 1 kpc may be false positive in searching for counterparts of catastrophic events such as gravitational wave events or gamma-ray bursts, which are valuable in time-domain astronomy and should be given more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When simulating a charged particle trajectory in plasmas with Monte Carlo methods, the traditional single-scattering model is accurate but computationally expensive. The traditional multiple-scattering model reduces the computation cost but assumes an exponential distribution of the scattering angle, which overestimates the cumulative scattering angle. In this paper, we develop a new Monte Carlo method for the charged particle transport simulations. The scattering angle is naturally sampled from a modified screened Rutherford scattering cross section, in which a greatly amplified minimum deflection angle is used. With this model, the simulations give the same scattering angle distribution with the single-scattering model but only take a comparable computation cost with the multiple-scattering model when the small scattering angle and Markovian approximations can be fulfilled. This model would be especially useful for the study of inertial-confinement-fusion, which is sensitive to the alpha-particle energy deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with concomitant aorto-retroarotic left renal vein fistula (ALRVF) is an extremely rare clinical condition. With the recent development of endovascular techniques, repair of such conditions with a complete minimal invasive approach is now possible. We reported here a case of endovascular repair of AAA with concomitant ALRVF. Case Presentation: A 62-year-old gentleman presenting with AAA and concomitant ALRVF underwent complete endovascular repair, including an endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) with bifurcated aortic graft as well as embolization of the aneurysm sac and deployment of a covered stent in the left retroarotic renal vein to achieve sealing of the arterial-venous fistula. The patient required no blood transfusion and no ICU stay. He has been followed up closely for 4 years and has been well clinically. Aneurysm sac size has remained stable. Conclusions: Endovascular repair can be a safe and reliable surgical alternative to treat AAA with concomitant ALRVF. But long-term follow up and more clinical data are required to verify the durability of endovascular repair for such conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In proton radiography, degeneracy of electric and magnetic fields in deflecting the probe protons can prevent full interpretation of proton flux perturbations in the detection plane. In this paper, theoretical analyses and numerical simulations suggest that the contributions of the electric and magnetic fields can be separately obtained by analyzing the difference between the flux distributions of two discriminated proton energies in a single shot of proton radiography. To eliminate the influence of field evolution on the separation, a strategy is proposed in which slow field evolution is assumed or an approximate estimate of field growth is made. This could help achieve a clearer understanding of the radiographic process and allow further quantitative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shock-driven hydrodynamic instabilities in a plasma usually lead to interfacial mixing and the generation of electromagnetic fields, which are nonequilibrium processes coupling kinetics with meso- and macroscopic dynamics. The understanding and modeling of these physical processes are very challenging tasks for single-fluid hydrodynamic codes. This work presents a new framework that incorporates both kinetics and hydrodynamics to simulate shock waves and hydrodynamic instabilities in high-density plasmas. In this hybrid code, ions are modeled using the standard particle-in-cell method together with a Monte Carlo description of collisions while electrons are modeled as a massless fluid, with the electron heat flux and fluid–particle energy exchange being considered in the electron pressure equation. In high-density plasmas, Maxwell's equations are solved using Ohm's law instead of Ampère's law. This hybrid algorithm retains ion kinetic effects and their consequences for plasma interpenetration, shock wave propagation, and hydrodynamic instability. Furthermore, we investigate the shock-induced (or gravity-induced) turbulent mixing between a light and a heavy plasma, where hydrodynamic instabilities are initiated by a shock wave (or gravity). This study reveals that self-generated electromagnetic fields play a role in the formation of baroclinic vorticity along the interface and in late-time mixing of the plasmas. Our results confirm the ability of the proposed method to describe shock-driven hydrodynamic instabilities in a plasma, in particular, nonequilibrium processes that involve mixing and electromagnetic fields at the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel scheme assisted by an external axial magnetic field is proposed to accelerate and collimate protons when a right-hand circularly polarized laser irradiates on an overdense plasma. We find that the transition of heating electron mode plays an important role in proton acceleration. First, the electrons are accelerated by stochastic heating in the case of no external magnetic field. Second, when the ratio of electron cyclotron frequency in the external magnetic field to the laser frequency is smaller than the relativistic factor ω ce / ω 0 ≤ γ , the cyclotron resonance absorption can occur and a laser front sharpening mechanism greatly improves the energy conversion from the laser to electrons. Meanwhile, the external magnetic field also restrains electrons' transverse motion. Finally, for ω ce / ω 0 > γ , there is a time delay in the electron heating, which can be divided into two stages. In the case of B = 2, a high quality proton beam can be harvested whose cut-off energy is enhanced by a factor of 4 and beam width is reduced to one fifth of that in the case of B = 0. These results may be helpful to understand the electron heating and proton accelerated process in a strongly magnetized plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient magnetic collimation of fast electron flow transporting in overdense plasmas is investigated with two-dimensional collisional particle-in-cell numerical simulations. It is found that the specially engineered targets exhibiting either high-resistivity-core-low-resistivity-cladding structure or low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure can collimate fast electrons. Two main mechanisms to generate collimating magnetic fields are found. In high-resistivity-core-low-resistivity-cladding structure targets, the magnetic field at the interfaces is generated by the gradients of the resistivity and fast electron current, while in low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure targets, the magnetic field is generated by the rapid changing of the flow velocity of the background electrons in transverse direction (perpendicular to the flow velocity) caused by the density jump. The dependences of the maximal magnetic field on the incident laser intensity and plasma density, which are studied by numerical simulations, are supported by our analytical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analytical fluid model for J×B heating during the normal incidence by a short ultraintense linearly polarized laser on a solid-density plasma is proposed. The steepening of an originally smooth electron density profile as the electrons are pushed inward by the laser is included self-consistently. It is shown that the J×B heating includes two distinct coupling processes depending on the initial laser and plasma conditions: for a moderate intensity (a<=1), the ponderomotive force of the laser light can drive a large plasma wave at the point ne=4γ0nc resonantly. When this plasma wave is damped, the energy is transferred to the plasma. At higher intensity, the electron density is steepened to a high level by the time-independent ponderomotive force, ne>4γ0nc, so that no 2ω resonance will occur, but the longitudinal component of the oscillating ponderomotive field can lead to an absorption mechanism similar to “vacuum heating.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analytical fluid model for resonance absorption during the oblique incidence by femtosecond laser pulses on a small-scale-length density plasma [k0L∈(0.1,10)] is proposed. The physics of resonance absorption is analyzed more clearly as we separate the electric field into an electromagnetic part and an electrostatic part. It is found that the characteristics of the physical quantities (fractional absorption, optimum angle, etc.) in a small-scale-length plasma are quite different from the predictions of classical theory. Absorption processes are generally dependent on the density scale length. For shorter scale length or higher laser intensity, vacuum heating tends to be dominant. It is shown that the electrons being pulled out and then returned to the plasma at the interface layer by the wave field can lead to a phenomenon like wave breaking. This can lead to heating of the plasma at the expanse of the wave energy. It is found that the optimum angle is independent of the laser intensity while the absorption rate increases with the laser intensity, and the absorption rate can reach as high as 25%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the imposed uniform magnetic field, ranging from 1 MG up to 50 MG, on the production and transport of relativistic electron beams (REBs) in overdense plasmas irradiated by ultraintense laser pulse are investigated with two-dimensional particle-in-cell numerical simulations. This study gives clear evidence that the imposed magnetic field is capable of effectively confining the relativistic electrons in space even when the source is highly divergent since it forces the electrons moving helically. In comparison, the spontaneous magnetic fields, generated by the helically moving electrons interplaying with the current filamentation instability, are dominant in scattering the relativistic electrons. As the imposed magnetic field was increased from 1 MG to 50 MG, overall coupling from laser to the relativistic electrons which have the potential to heat the compressed core in fast ignition was found to increase from 6.9% to 21.3% while the divergence of the REB increases significantly from 64° to 90°. The simulations show that imposed magnetic field of the value of 3-30 MG could be more suitable to fast-ignition inertial fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of thermal anisotropy of background plasma on the current-filamentation instability (CFI) in an asymmetric counterstreaming system are investigated with a fully relativistic kinetic model. It is found that both the temperature and the thermal anisotropy of the background plasma play important roles in the development of the CFI. It is also pointed out that the thermal anisotropy of the background plasma dominates over the space charge effect in suppressing the CFI. A parametric study of the CFI is presented in the context of fast ignition. A new way to suppress CFI and its detrimental effects on the fast electron beam divergence has been proposed. The results of the analytical estimations are verified by 2D3V particle-in-cell simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of collision on the generation and transportation of fast electrons produced by ultra-intense laser pulse in overdense plasma for densities ranging from below to 400 times critical density are investigated by collisional particle-in-cell code. It is found that a relatively stable state of fast electron energy flux exists in the simulations, where collision contributes to increasing the production of fast electrons. The unexpected increase of production is attributed to the efficient local heating of the thermal electrons, which results in higher thermal pressure and less steepened interface. Therefore, fast electrons can be effectively accelerated through 2ω oscillation from J×B force in the collisional case, while it is suppressed in the collisionless case because of the highly steepened plasma density. The collisional effects on the transportation of fast electrons in the solid target are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The presence of endoleak was associated with the failure of endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) treatment. The key to eliminating type II endoleak has shifted from reintervention to prevention. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of applying fibrin sealant to prevent type II endoleak in conjunction with EVAR., Methods: All patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm who underwent EVAR from June 2019 to July 2021 were reviewed. Patients were grouped as Group A: standard EVAR with preemptive embolization and Group B: standard EVAR alone. The primary endpoint was the incidence of type II endoleak. The secondary endpoints were aneurysm sac regression, the inferior mesenteric artery patency, the numbers of patent lumbar arteries, and all-cause mortality., Results: A total of 104 patients were included in Group A, and 116 were included in Group B. Technical success rate was 100%. The overall incidence of type II endoleak in Group A was significantly lower than that in Group B (4.8% vs 19.0%). The mean time of freedom from type II endoleak was 22.71 months for Group A (95% confidence interval, 21.59-23.83 months) and 19.89 months for Group B (95% confidence interval, 18.08-21.70 months). The Kaplan-Meier estimate of freedom from type II endoleak showed a significantly longer duration of freedom from type II endoleak in Group A (81.0% vs 95.2%). Group A showed a continuous sac regression tendency. In Group B, the sac volume decreased within 12 months but increased by 3.07 cm 3 at 24 months. No complications were noted in both groups., Conclusions: Nonselective preemptive embolization with porcine fibrin sealant during EVAR was safe and effective in preventing type II endoleak in the short and mid-term. Preemptive embolization can lead to a significantly higher sac regression rate. Larger patient populations and longer follow-ups with randomized control designed trials are expected to verify the long-term effectiveness and safety of preemptive embolization in preventing type II endoleak., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The formation and structure of a collisional shock wave in a fully ionized plasma is studied via full particle-in-cell simulations, which allows the complex momentum and energy transfer processes between different charged particles to be treated self-consistently. The kinetic energy of the plasma flow drifting towards a reflecting piston is found to be rapidly converted into thermal motion under the cooperative effects of ion-ion collisions, ion-electron collisions, and electric field charged-particle interactions. The subsequent shock evolution is influenced by the "precursor" ion beam before a quasisteady state is reached. The shock wave structure is then analyzed from a two-fluid transport viewpoint, which is found to be affected by "flux-limiting" electron transport, the nonthermal ions, and the charge separation electric field.

Spontaneous isolated subclavian artery dissecting aneurysm is rare. This is to our knowledge the first case in the world's literature to report a patient with subclavian artery dissecting aneurysm. Although the endovascular approach of treating subclavian artery pathologies is not challenging, the choice of using a covered stent for this patient was a new attempt in treating subclavian artery dissections. This case report highlights the possibility and safety of using covered stent in treating patients with subclavian artery dissecting aneurysms after reassuring the patency of the cerebral circulation system., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A self-generation mechanism of magnetic dipoles and the anomalous energy dissipation of fast electrons in a magnetized beam-plasma system are presented. Based on two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, it is found that the magnetic dipoles are self-organized and play important roles in the beam electron energy dissipation. These dipoles drift slowly in the direction of the return flow with a quasisteady velocity, which depends upon the magnetic amplitude of the dipole and the imposed external magnetic field. This dipole formation provides a mechanism for the anomalous energy dissipation of a relativistic electron beam, which would play an important role in collisionless shock and ion shock acceleration.

An analytical fluid model is proposed for artificially collimating fast electron beams produced in the interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with specially engineered low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure targets. Since this theory clearly predicts the characteristics of the spontaneously generated magnetic field and its dependence on the plasma parameters of the targets transporting fast electrons, it is of substantial relevance to the target design for fast ignition. The theory also reveals that the rapid changing of the flow velocity of the background electrons in a transverse direction (perpendicular to the flow velocity) caused by the density jump dominates the generation of a spontaneous interface magnetic field for these kinds of targets. It is found that the spontaneously generated magnetic field reaches as high as 100 MG, which is large enough to collimate fast electron transport in overdense plasmas. This theory is also supported by numerical simulations performed using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell code. It is found that the simulation results agree well with the theoretical analysis.

Particle-in-cell simulations aimed at improving the coupling efficiency of input laser energy deposited to a compressed core by using a double cone are described. It is found that the number of high-energy electrons escaping from the sides of the cone is greatly reduced by the vacuum gap inside the wing of the double cone. Two main mechanisms to confine high-energy electrons are found. These mechanisms are the sheath electric field at the rear of the inner cone wing and the quasistatic magnetic field inside the vacuum gap. The generation mechanism for the quasistatic magnetic fields is discussed in detail. It is found that the quasistatic fields continue to confine the high-energy electrons for longer than a few picoseconds. The double cones provide confinement and focusing of about 15% of the input energy for deposition in the compressed core.

An analytical fluid model is proposed for the generation of strong quasistatic magnetic fields during normal incidence of a short ultraintense Gaussian laser pulse with a finite spot size on an overdense plasma. The steepening of the electron density profile in the originally homogeneous overdense plasma and the formation of electron cavitation as the electrons are pushed inward by the laser are included self-consistently. It is shown that the appearance of the cavitation plays an important role in the generation of quasistatic magnetic fields: the strong plasma inhomogeneities caused by the formation of the electron cavitation lead to the generation of a strong axial quasistatic magnetic field Bz. In the overdense regime, the generated quasistatic magnetic field increases with increasing laser intensity, while it decreases with increasing plasma density. It is also found that, in a moderately overdense plasma, highly intense laser pulses can generate magnetic fields approximately 100 MG and greater due to the transverse linear mode conversion process.