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A. Sen

Publications and source records attributed to A. Sen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Effect of confinement anisotropy on particle transport and structural relaxation of finite dust clusters in complex plasma

A finite dusty plasma cluster of charged microparticles confined in an anisotropic potential well is investigated experimentally and through Langevin dynamics simulations. As the confinement anisotropy is increased, the cluster undergoes a structural transition from near isotropic concentric shells to a linear chain configuration. The spatiotemporal modes of the cluster are analyzed by using Singular Value Decomposition. At weaker confinement anisotropies, two modes are dominant. Mode 1, corresponding to a breathing-type oscillation of the cluster, and mode 2, representing an azimuthal rotational motion of the cluster, together carry around 99$\%$ of the signal energy. With increasing anisotropy, the dominance of mode 2 decreases and that of mode 1 increases. This mode restructuring is accompanied by an increasingly non-Gaussian particle displacement statistics as evidenced by positive values of the Non-Gaussian Parameter maintained over an extended time duration. Simultaneously, the increasing dominance of mode 1 and suppression of mode 2 is accompanied by a significant slowing down of structural relaxation, with the cluster eventually exhibiting signatures of structural arrest. At weaker anisotropy, the experimentally measured dynamical quantities are very sensitive to the initial conditions which account for the discrepancy between the experiment and initial condition averaged simulation results for these observables. This study offers insight into the mechanisms underlying anomalous transport and structural relaxation in anisotropically confined many-body systems.

physics.plasm-ph

Production of high-quality plasma discharges via real-time control of plasma current ramp-up using neutral gas injection in Aditya-U tokamak

Robust control of plasma current ramp-up is an absolute necessity, as an efficient and uncontaminated plasma current ramp-up is essential for achieving prolonged, high-pressure tokamak plasma discharges. In conventional tokamaks with Ohmic breakdown, the plasma current ramp-up is achieved primarily with pre-fixed temporal profiles of the applied toroidal electric field and the equilibrium magnetic field (Bv). The pre-fixed temporal profiles of these fields are often insufficient to maintain a successful plasma current ramp-up, as several unquantified dynamical variables, such as the condition of the vessel wall and plasma-facing components, influence the plasma current rise. Fuel gas injection in an appropriate quantity at a suitable time during the current ramp-up is therefore used to control the plasma current rise rate, ensuring successful plasma current start-up in Aditya-U. The gas injection time and gas quantity are controlled based on real-time measurement of plasma current rise rate using a digital signal processor (DSP) controller. This special control scheme is capable of achieving the plasma current to rise nearly at the desired rate, resulting in a successful start-up and a stable plasma discharge.

physics.plasm-ph

Development of a thin-target hard X-ray bremsstrahlung detection system to study confined runaway electrons in Aditya-U Tokamak

A specially shielded CdTe detector based hard X-ray (HXR) monitoring system equipped with a lead collimator has been developed and installed on the Aditya-U tokamak to investigate the dynamics of fast electrons (~20-200 keV) generated during sawtooth activity. The pre-existing HXR monitor in Aditya-U is exposed to the entire HXR bremsstrahlung emission from the plasma volume, peripheral limiters, and other structural components, which limits its ability to separately study the dynamics of lost and confined runaway electrons (REs). In contrast, the newly developed diagnostic has successfully measured the chord-averaged thin-target HXR bremsstrahlung emission encompassing the core plasma region, particularly within and around the sawtooth inversion radius. The measured HXR spectra are validated through forward modelling code that incorporates plasma parameters, confined RE characteristics, and the geometric configuration of the diagnostic system. The results confirm the capability of the developed HXR monitor to probe the fast-electron dynamics during internal plasma instabilities.

physics.plasm-ph

Stabilization of sawteeth instability by short gas pulse injection in ADITYA-U tokamak

Experiments on ADITYA-U tokamak show a marked enhancement in the sawtooth period by application of short gas puffs of fuel that cause a modification of the radial density profile. A consequent suppression of the trapped electron modes (TEMs) then leads to an increase in the core electron temperature. This slows down the heat propagation following a sawtooth crash, causing a delay in achieving the critical temperature gradient inside the q = 1 surface required for the next sawtooth crash to happen. The overall scenario has strong similarities with the behavior of sawtooth under electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Our findings suggest an alternate, simpler technique for sawtooth control that may be usefully employed in small/medium-sized tokamaks that do not have an ECRH or any other auxiliary heating facility.

physics.plasm-ph

Performance study of a bakelite RPC prototype built by new technique of linseed oil coating

Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is one of the most commonly used detectors in high energy physics experiments for triggering and tracking because of its good efficiency ($\textgreater$~90\%) and time resolution ($\sim$~1-2~ns). Generally, bakelite which is one of the most commonly used materials as electrode plates in RPC, sometimes suffers from surface roughness issues. If the surface is not smooth, the probability of micro discharges and spurious pulses increase, which leads to the deterioration in the performance of the detector. We have developed a new method of linseed oil coating for the bakelite based detectors to avoid the surface roughness issue. The detector is characterised with Tetrafluoroethane (R134a) based gas mixture. The detector is also tested with a high rate of gamma radiation environment in the laboratory for the radiation hardness test. The detailed measurement procedure and test results are presented in this article.

physics.ins-det

Fault-tolerant Network Design for Bounded Delay Data Transfer from PMUs to Control Center

Communication network design for monitoring the state of an electric power grid has received significant attention in recent years. In order to measure stability of a power grid, it is imperative that measurement data collected by the Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) located at the Sub-Stations (SS) must arrive at the Control Center (CC) within a specified delay threshold delta. In earlier papers we formalized the design problem as the Rooted Delay Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree (RDCMST) problem. However, RDCMST does not provide any fault-tolerance capability, as failure of just one communication link would prevent PMU data from reaching the CC. In this paper, we study the optimal cost network design problem with fault tolerance capability. In our model the PMU data from the SSs will have a path to reach the CC in spite of the failure of at most R links within the delay threshold delta. If R = 1, each SS will have two link disjoint paths of length at most delta to the CC. In other words, each SS will be on a cycle with the CC. We refer to this problem as the Rooted Delay Constrained Minimum Cost Cycle Cover (RDCMCCC) problem. We provide computational complexity analysis, an Integer Linear Programming formulation to find the optimal solution and a heuristic based on the sweeping technique. We evaluate the performance of our heuristic with real substation location data of Arizona.

cs.NI

Investigation of the stability in the performance of triple GEM detectors for High Energy Physics experiments

Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) is one of the mostly used gaseous detectors in the High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. GEMs are widely used as tracking devices due to their high-rate handling capability and good position resolution. An initiative is taken to study the stability in performance of the GEM chamber prototypes in the laboratory using external radiation for different Argon based gas mixtures. The effect of ambient parameters on the gain and energy resolution are studied. Very recently some behavioural changes in the performance of a SM GEM chamber is observed. The details of the experimental setup, methodology and results are reported here.

hep-ex

Measurement of the Hoyle State Radiative Transition Width

The radiative decay of the Hoyle state is the doorway to the production of heavier elements in stellar environment. Here we report, an exclusive measurement of electric quadruple (E$_2$) transitions of the Hoyle state to the ground state of $^{12}$C through the $^{12}$C(p, p$^\prime$$\gamma$$\gamma$)$^{12}$C reaction. Triple coincidence measurement yields a value of radiative branching ratio $\Gamma_{rad}$/$\Gamma$ = 4.01 (30) $\times$ 10$^{-4}$. The result has been corroborated by an independent experiment based on the complete kinematical measurement $via.$ $^{12}$C(p, p$^\prime$)$^{12}$C reaction ($\Gamma_{rad}$/$\Gamma$ = 4.04 (30) $\times$ 10$^{-4}$). Using our results together with the currently adopted values of $\Gamma_{\pi}$(E$_0$)/$\Gamma$ and $\Gamma_{\pi}$($E_0$), the radiative width of the Hoyle state is found to be 3.75 (40) $\times$ 10$^{-3}$ eV. We emphasize here that our result is not in agreement with 34 $\%$ increase in the radiative decay width of the Hoyle state measured recently but consistent with the currently adopted value.

nucl-ex

Quantum Communication in 6G Satellite Networks: Entanglement Distribution Across Changing Topologies

As LEO/VLEO satellites offer many attractive features, such as low transmission delay, they are expected to be an integral part of 6G. Global entanglement distribution over LEO and VLEO satellites network must reckon with satellite movement over time. Current studies do not fully capture the dynamic nature of satellite constellations. We model a dynamic LEO/VLEO satellite network as a time-varying graph and construct a sequence of static graphs to represent a dynamic network. We study the entanglement distribution problem between a set of source-destination node pairs in this dynamic network utilizing Multi-commodity Flow (MCF). Solving MCF over a sequence of graphs independently for each graph may produce a completely different set of paths. Changing the set of paths every time the graph topology changes may involve a significant amount of overhead, as an established set of paths must be taken down and a new set of paths established. We propose a technique that will avoid this overhead by computing only one set of paths P to be used over all the graphs in the sequence. The degraded performance offered by P may be viewed as the cost of using P. The benefit of using P is the overhead cost of path switching that can be avoided. We provide a cost-benefit analysis in a LEO/VLEO constellation for entanglement distribution between multiple source-destination pairs. Our extensive experimentation shows that a significant amount of savings in overhead can be achieved if one is willing to accept a slightly degraded performance.

cs.ET

Observation on the bias current variation of a single mask triple GEM chamber

Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector, one of the advanced members of the Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) group, is widely used in High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. The high rate handling capability and spatial resolution make it a desired tracking detector for high rate HEP experiments. Investigation of the long-term stability is an essential criterion for any tracking device used in HEP experiments. To investigate the long-term stability of a Single Mask~(SM) triple GEM detector prototype, it is irradiated continuously using a $^{55}$Fe X-ray source of energy 5.9 keV. The chamber is operated with Ar/CO$_2$ gas mixture in continuous flow mode. The gain and energy resolution of the chamber are calculated from the 5.9 keV X-ray peak and studied as a function of time. The applied voltage, divider current and also the environmental parameters (ambient temperature, pressure and relative humidity) are recorded continuously. It is observed that at a fixed applied voltage, the divider current of the detector is changing with time and as a result, the gain of the detector also changes. A systematic investigation is carried out to understand the probable reasons behind the observed variation in divider current and also to find its possible remedies. The details of the experimental setup, methodology and results are discussed in this article.

physics.ins-det

Auto-correlations of Microscopic Density Fluctuations for Yukawa Fluids in the Generalized Hydrodynamics Framework

The present work develops a theoretical procedure for obtaining transport coefficients of Yukawa systems from density fluctuations. The dynamics of Yukawa systems are described in the framework of the generalized hydrodynamic model that incorporates strong coupling and visco-elastic memory effects. A hydrodynamic matrix for such a system is exactly derived and then used to obtain an analytic expression for the density autocorrelation function (DAF)- a marker of the time dynamics of density fluctuations. The present approach is validated against a DAF obtained from numerical data of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of a dusty plasma system that is a practical example of a Yukawa system. The MD results and analytic expressions derived from the model equations are then used to obtain various transport coefficients and the latter are compared with values available in the literature from other models. The influence of strong coupling and visco-elastic effects on the transport parameters are discussed. Finally, the utility of our calculations for obtaining reliable estimates of transport coefficients from experimentally determined DAF is pointed out.

physics.plasm-ph

Self-Sustained Non-Equilibrium Co-existence of Fluid and Solid States in a Strongly Coupled Complex Plasma System

A complex (dusty) plasma system is well known as a paradigmatic model for studying the kinetics of solid-liquid phase transitions in inactive condensed matter. At the same time, under certain conditions a complex plasma system can also display characteristics of an active medium with the micron-sized particles converting energy of the ambient environment into motility and thereby becoming active. We present a detailed analysis of the experimental complex plasmas system that shows evidence of a non-equilibrium stationary coexistence between a cold crystalline and a hot fluid state in the structure due to the conversion of plasma energy into the motion energy of microparticles in the central region of the system. The plasma mediated non-reciprocal interaction between the dust particles is the underlying mechanism for the enormous heating of the central subsystem, and it acts as a micro-scale energy source that keeps the central subsystem in the molten state. Accurate multiscale simulations of the system based on combined molecular dynamics and particle-in-cell approaches show that strong structural nonuniformity of the system under the action of electostatic trap makes development of instabilities a local process. We present both experimental tests conducted with a complex plasmas system in a DC glow discharge plasma and a detailed theoretical analysis.

physics.plasm-ph

Effect of charging-up on the uniformity of a single mask triple GEM detector

The Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector is one of the advanced members of the Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) family, used in High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments as a tracking device due to its high rate handling capability and good spatial resolution. The uniformity in the performance of the detector is an essential criterion for any tracking device. The presence of the dielectric medium (Kapton) inside the active volume of the GEM chamber changes its behaviour when exposed to external irradiation. This phenomenon is known as the charging-up effect. In this article, the uniformity in terms of gain, energy resolution and count rate of a Single Mask (SM) triple GEM chamber of dimension 10 cm $\times$ 10 cm are reported for both the charged-up and uncharged GEM foils.

physics.ins-det

Characterisation of a new RPC prototype using conventional gas mixture

Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is a well-known gaseous detector in the field of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments for its good tracking capability, high efficiency, good time resolution, and low cost of fabrication. The main issue in RPC is its limitation in the rate handling capability. Several experimental groups have developed sophisticated techniques to increase the particle rate capability and reduce the noise rate of this detector. In this article, we discussed a new method for linseed oil coating in case of bakelite RPC detector to achieve good efficiency and the results obtained using a conventional gas mixture.

physics.ins-det

Visual investigation of possible degradation in GEM foil under test

Visual investigation of a Single Mask (SM) Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) foil, showing small resistance~($\sim$ 40 k$\Omega$), is performed manually using an optical microscope. The GEM foil is scanned and the different imperfections in the foil are identified. Different techniques are used to clean the GEM foil to remove the short paths created between the GEM electrodes. The details of the method used for cleaning the GEM foil and the result of leakage current measurement after the cleaning of the foil are discussed in this article.

physics.ins-det

Effect of relative humidity on the long-term operation of a single mask triple GEM chamber

The characteristic studies of a Single Mask~(SM) triple Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector are carried out using Ar/CO$_2$ gas mixture in 70/30 volume ratio in continuous flow mode. A Fe$^{55}$ X-ray source is used for this work. The gain and energy resolution are studied from the 5.9 keV X-ray energy spectra. After correcting the effects of temperature and pressure variation, the effect of relative humidity on the gain and energy resolution of the chamber is investigated. The details of the experimental setup, measurement methods and results are presented in this article.

physics.ins-det

Reflection of a dust acoustic solitary wave in a dusty plasma

We report the first experimental observations of the reflection of a dust acoustic solitary wave from a potential barrier in a dusty plasma medium. The experiments have been carried out in an inverted $\Pi$-shaped Dusty Plasma Experimental (DPEx) device in a DC glow discharge plasma environment. The dust acoustic solitary wave is excited by modulating the plasma with a short negative Gaussian pulse that is superimposed over the discharge voltage. The solitary wave structure is seen to move towards a potential barrier, created by the sheath around a biased wire, and turn back after reflecting off the barrier. The amplitude, width, and velocity of the soliton are recorded as a function of time. The experiment is repeated for different strengths of the potential barrier and for different initial amplitudes of the solitary wave. It is found that the distance of the closest approach of the solitary wave to the centre of the barrier increases with the increase of the strength of the potential barrier and with the decrease of the initial wave amplitude. An emissive probe is used to measure the sheath potential and its thickness by measuring the plasma potential profile in the axial direction over a range of resistances connected to the biased wire. A modified Korteweg de Vries equation is derived and numerically solved to qualitatively understand the experimental findings.

physics.plasm-ph

A new technique of linseed oil coating in bakelite RPC and the first test results

Single gap Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is one of the very popular gaseous detectors used in high-energy physics experiments nowadays. It is a very fast detector having low cost of fabrication. The RPCs are usually built using glass or bakelite plates having high resistivity $\sim~10^{10}-10^{11}$ $\Omega$~cm. Bakelite RPCs are generally fabricated with a linseed oil coating inside to make the inner electrode surface smoother which helps to reduce the micro discharge probability. Linseed oil coating also reduces the surface UV sensitivity dramatically and effectively protect the bakelite surfaces from the Hydrofluoric Acid (HF), produced by the interaction of fluorine with the water vapour. There is a conventional way to do this linseed oil coating after making the gas gap as done in experiments $e.g.$ ALICE, CMS etc. A new technique is introduced here to do the linseed oil coating on the bakelite plate before making the gas gap. 100\% Tetrafluoroethane (C$_2$H$_2$F$_4$) gas is used to test the RPC module in the avalanche mode with cosmic rays. Conventional NIM electronics is used for this study. The efficiency and noise rate are measured. In this article, the detailed method of fabrication and the first test results are presented.

physics.ins-det