The Effect of the Mode of Gas Preionization on the Parameters of Runaway Electrons in High-Pressure Discharges

The results of theoretical modeling of the process of formation of a nanosecond discharge in a coaxial discharge gap filled with a high-pressure gas are presented. Two cardinally different evolution scenarios of the nanosecond discharge are addressed: A) in a uniformly volume pre-ionized gas medium and B) in a strongly spatially-nonuniform initially-ionized region near the cathode with a small curvature radius. Relying on the minimal mathematical model of a high-voltage discharge and the description of the physical kinetics of runaway electrons, it is shown using the Boltzmann kinetic equation that the amplitude and duration of a current pulse of runaway electrons and their energy spectrum strongly depend on the mode of gas preionization in the gap. In particular, the other conditions being equal, near-cathode initiation gives rise to the generation of a large group of low-energy runaway electrons within the late current-switching stage. The volume-homogeneous gas preionization can reduce the number of fast electrons by nearly two orders of magnitude compared to the regime without preionization.