Open AccessRunaway electrons and Bremsstrahlung
Author(s) -
P. Helander
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
new journal of physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.584
H-Index - 190
ISSN - 1367-2630
DOI - 10.1088/1367-2630/18/9/091001
Subject(s) - bremsstrahlung , physics , electron , photon , plasma , acceleration , nuclear physics , quantum electrodynamics , atomic physics , electric field , energy spectrum , computational physics , quantum mechanics
If an electric field is applied to a plasma, it causes ‘runaway’ acceleration of some electrons—a phenomenon that has been known for almost a century. A paper by Embréus et al (2016 New J. Phys. 18 093023 ) calculates how the emission of Bremsstrahlung affects the upper end of the energy spectrum of these electrons, and finds that it is important to carefully account for finite energy of the emitted photons.