Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T19:34:43.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth of low-frequency waves due to a photon beam in a magnetized electron–positron plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1997

QINGHUAN LUO  and
D. B. MELROSE
QINGHUAN LUO
Affiliation:
Present address: Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia Division of Space Geophysics, National Institute for Space Research, PO Box 515, 12201-970 S.J. Campos–SP, Brazil Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
D. B. MELROSE
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The effect of a beam of radio waves of very high brightness passing through a cold, magnetized, electron–positron plasma is discussed. The properties of the natural wave modes in such a plasma are summarized, and approximate forms for the nonlinear response tensor are written down. Photon-beam-induced instabilities of low-frequency waves in the pair plasma are analysed in the random-phase approximation. When three-wave interactions involve two high-frequency waves in the same mode and a low-frequency wave in a different mode, wave–wave interactions are similar to wave–particle interactions in that photons act like particles that emit and absorb low-frequency waves. The absorption coefficients for various low-frequency waves due to a photon beam are evaluated. In a pure electron–positron plasma, photon-beam-induced instabilities can be effective only when either the high-frequency or the low-frequency waves are strongly modified by the magnetic field. The growth of the low-frequency waves is most effective when the high-frequency photon beam has a frequency close to the cyclotron frequency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , August 1997 , pp. 345 - 366
Copyright
1997 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)