This study investigates the effect of a transverse magnetic field on high-voltage pulsed discharge in helium at a pressure of 30 Torr. A simple two-dimensional fluid model that describes the high-voltage pulsed discharge in helium in a transverse weak magnetic field (B = 0.4 T) is presented, which uses an empirical relation to account for the magnetic field. The results of using the empirical relation for the effective field agree well with the experimental results. The dynamics of discharge development in the presence of the magnetic field is also investigated. The magnetic field does not significantly affect the gas-discharge development dynamics in helium at a pressure of 30 Torr.

Our earth is immersed in the near-earth space plasma environment, which plays a vital role in protecting our planet against the solar-wind impact and influencing space activities. It is significant to investigate the physical processes dominating the environment, for deepening our scientific understanding of it and improving the ability to forecast the space weather. As a crucial part of the National Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure–Space Environment Simulation Research Infrastructure (SESRI) in Harbin, the Space Plasma Environment Research Facility (SPERF) builds a system to replicate the near-earth space plasma environment in the laboratory. The system aims to simulate the three-dimensional (3-D) structure and processes of the terrestrial magnetosphere for the first time in the world, providing a unique platform to reveal the physics of the 3-D asymmetric magnetic reconnection relevant to the earth's magnetopause, wave–particle interaction in the earth's radiation belt, particles’ dynamics during the geomagnetic storm, etc. The paper will present the engineering design and construction of the near-earth space plasma simulation system of the SPERF, with a focus on the critical technologies that have been resolved to achieve the scientific goals. Meanwhile, the possible physical issues that can be studied based on the apparatus are sketched briefly. The earth-based system is of great value in understanding the space plasma environment and supporting space exploration.

We imaged the excited OH maser line at 6.035 GHz associated with the 6.7 GHz methanol masers in a selected sample of high-mass young stellar objects using the European VLBI Network. The excited OH emission was found in a survey of methanol maser sources carried out since 2018 with the Torun 32-m telescope. The overlap of radial velocities of spectral features of methanol and excited OH suggested that both lines arose in the same volume of gas, therefore, we verified this hypothesis with the interferometric data. Here, we present the first images at the milliarcsecond scale of both maser transitions and identify the Zeeman pairs at the ex-OH line estimating the strength of the magnetic field in G43.149+00.013 (W49N).

This paper reviews our current knowledge about pulsating chemically peculiar (CP) stars. CP stars are slowly rotating upper main-sequence objects, efficiently employing diffusion in their atmospheres. They can be divided into magnetic and non-magnetic objects. Magnetic activity significantly influence their pulsational characteristics. Only a handful of magnetic, classical pulsating objects are now known. The only exceptions are about 70 rapidly oscillating Ap stars, which seem to be located within a very tight astrophysical parameter space. Still, many observational and theoretical efforts are needed to understand all important physical aspects and their interrelationships. The most important steps to reach these goals are reviewed.

Several radio sources have been detected in the high-mass star-forming region W75N(B), among them the massive young stellar objects VLA 1 and VLA 2 are of great interest. These are thought to be in different evolutionary stages. In particular, VLA 1 is at the early stage of the photoionization and it is driving a thermal radio jet, while VLA 2 is a thermal, collimated ionized wind surrounded by a dusty disk or envelope. In both sources 22 GHz H2O masers have been detected in the past. Those around VLA 1 show a persistent linear distribution along the thermal radio jet and those around VLA 2 have instead traced the evolution from a non-collimated to a collimated outflow over a period of ∼20 years. The magnetic field inferred from the H2O masers showed a rotation of its orientation according to the direction of the major-axis of the shell around VLA 2, while it is immutable around VLA 1.

We further monitored the polarized emission of the 22 GHz H2O masers around both VLA 1 and VLA 2 over a period of six years with the European VLBI Network for a total of four epochs separated by two years from 2014 to 2020. We here present the results of our monitoring project by focusing on the evolution of the maser distribution and of the magnetic field around the two massive young stellar objects.

We present the first results of simultaneous observations of the 6.035 GHz exited OH and 6.7 GHz methanol masers toward a sample of 10 high-mass young stellar objects (HMYSOs), observed using eMERLIN in 2020 and 2022. Searching for the coincidence and avoidance of these two maser transitions, we estimate physical conditions around central protostars. We identify Zeeman-splittings of the OH emission and determine the strength of the magnetic field. Combining it with linear polarization, we derive the magnetic field structure in these high-mass star-forming regions.

Untethered small-scale robots can accomplish tasks which are not feasible by conventional macro robots. In the current research, we have designed and fabricated a miniature magnetic robot actuated by an external magnetic field. The proposed robot has two coaxial wheels and one magnetic dipole which is capable of rolling and moving on the surface by variation in the direction of magnetic field. To generate the desired magnetic field, a Helmholtz electromagnetic coil is manufactured. To steer the robot to the desired position, at first the robot dynamics is investigated, and subsequently a controller based on a neuro-fuzzy network has been designed. Finally, the proposed controller is implemented experimentally and the performance of the control system is demonstrated.

The nonlinear evolution of electron Weibel instability in a symmetric, counterstream, unmagnetized electron–positron e−/e+ plasmas is studied by a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) method. The magnetic field is produced and amplified by the Weibel instability, which extracts energy from the plasma anisotropy. A weakly relativistic drift velocity of 0.5c is considered for two counterstreaming e−/e+ plasma flows. Simulations show that in a homogeneous e−/e+ plasma distribution, the magnetic field amplifies exponentially in the linear regime and rapidly decays after saturation. However, in the case of inhomogeneous e−/e+ plasma distribution, the magnetic field re-amplifies at post-saturation. We also find that the amount of magnetic field amplification at post-saturation depends on the strength of the density inhomogeneity of the upstream plasma distribution. The temperature calculation shows that the finite thermal anisotropy exists in the case of an inhomogeneous plasma distribution which leads to the second-stage magnetic field amplification after the first saturation. Such density inhomogeneities are present in a variety of astrophysical sources: for example, in supernova remnants and gamma-ray bursts. Therefore, the present analysis is very useful in understanding these astrophysical sources, where anisotropic density fluctuations are very common in the downstream region of the relativistic shocks and the widely distributed magnetic field.

Rendering of rigid objects with high stiffness while guaranteeing system stability remains a major and challenging issue in haptics. Being a part of the haptic system, the behavior of human operators, represented as the mechanical impedance of arm, has an inevitable influence on system performance. This paper first verified that the human arm impedance can unconsciously be modified through imposing background forces and resist unstable motions arising from external disturbance forces. Then, a reliable impedance tuning (IT) method for improving the stability and performance of haptic systems is proposed, which tunes human arm impedance by superimposing a position-based background force over the traditional haptic workspace. Moreover, an adaptive IT algorithm, adjusting the maximum background force based on the velocity of the human arm, is proposed to achieve a reasonable trade-off between system stability and transparency. Based on a three-degrees-of-freedom haptic device, maximum achievable stiffness and transparency grading experiments are carried out with 12 subjects, which verify the efficacy and advantage of the proposed method.

The observations and simulations have revealed that large-scale magnetic field and outflows can exist in the inner regions of an advection-dominated accretion disc where the resistive diffusion may also be important. In the present paper, the roles of large-scale magnetic field and outflows in the structure of resistive advection-dominated accretion discs are explored by assuming that the accretion flow is radially self-similar. In the non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approximation, the results show that the angular velocity is always sub-Keplerian when both the outflow and the large-scale magnetic field are taken into account. A stronger toroidal field component leads to faster rotation, while the disc rotates with faster rate if the vertical field component is weaker. The increase of magnetic diffusivity causes the infall velocity to be close to Keplerian velocity. Although the previous studies in the ideal MHD approximation have shown that the disc temperature decreases due to the vertical field component, we find that the effect of vertical field component on the temperature of a resistive disc depends on the magnetic diffusivity. When the magnetic diffusivity is high, the more efficient mechanism for decreasing the disc temperature can be the outflows, and not the large-scale magnetic field. In such a limit of the magnetic diffusivity, the components of the large-scale magnetic field enhance the gas temperature. The increase of temperature can lead to heating and acceleration of the electrons and help us to explain the origin of phenomena such as the flares in Sgr A*. On the other hand, the infall velocity in such a limit rises as the temperature increases, and therefore the surface density falls to too low values. Any change in the density profile can alter the structure and the emitted spectrum of disc.

An extended magnetosphere of a strongly magnetized accreting white dwarf (known as a polar) prevents the formation of an accretion disk and the matter is channelled to the magnetic pole(s). A few such sources show quasi-periodic oscillations in their optical light curves. These high-frequency oscillations are thought to be generated from the post-shock accretion column. The kinetic energy of the accretion flow is finally emitted from this post-shock region and the involved radiation processes decide the state of the matter. Here we study the structure and the dynamical properties of such accretion columns and compare the results with the observational characteristics.

We present a homogeneous analysis of a large sample of magnetic white dwarf stars (with SDSS, PanSTARRS and Gaia data) using state-of-the-art magnetic atmosphere models and fitting techniques. We discuss the properties of the sample as well as the implication on our understanding of the nature and evolution of such objects.