Ladder climbing and autoresonant acceleration of the spherical plasma density wave

Abstract

Abstract Ladder climbing (LC) and autoresonance (AR) of the spherical plasma density wave are studied for the first time. The governing equation of the perturbed spherical density wave in the energy level space based on a hydrodynamic model of the electron plasma is presented, and it is demonstrated that the quantum LC and classical AR transition can be achieved in the spherical plasma. The asymptotic thresholds of the LC and AR transition of the spherical plasma wave are obtained analytically and confirmed numerically. We find that the spherical wave energy is concentrated to the sphere center as the density wave climbs to the higher level, the spherical plasma behaves obvious compression character, and the perturbed density of the sphere center even can be amplified to 100 times larger of the initial perturbed density. Compared to the one-dimensional case, the energy spectrum of the spherical plasma wave shifts upward, and the energy level spacing of the spherical plasma wave is broadened. These result in the facts that the spherical plasma needs the larger driving strength to achieve the LC and AR, while the total perturbed density of the spherical plasma always is larger than that of the one-dimensional case.