Spontaneous electromagnetic fluctuations in a relativistic magnetized electron–positron plasma
- Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción (Chile)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division, Geospace Physics Laboratory, Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
Spontaneous fluctuations are a robust phenomenon of plasmas near equilibrium, which does not depend on the existence of instabilities, and their characterization provides valuable information about the role of the relativistic temperatures T∼mc{sup 2} in relativistic regimes. In this paper, we study the broadband spontaneous electromagnetic fluctuations in a relativistic and magnetized pair plasma described by Maxwell–Jüttner distribution functions, based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that the transverse electromagnetic fluctuations are constrained by a temperature-independent critical frequency ω{sub c}=√(Ω{sub c}{sup 2}+(ck){sup 2}), which separates the collisionless damping regime (|ω|<ω{sub c}) from the case where the waves can propagate without damping (|ω|>ω{sub c}). Further, relativistic simulations show an excellent agreement between analytical and numerical results. We expect this formalism to contribute to obtaining useful physical information about the state of relativistic plasmas.
- OSTI ID:
- 22882699
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 810, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Since 2009, the country of publication for this journal is the UK.; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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