Laboratory Measurements of Electrostatic Solitary Structures Generated by Beam Injection

Journal Article · Fri Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.115001· OSTI ID:21466951

Lefebvre, Bertrand; Chen, Li-Jen ^[1]; Gekelman, Walter; Pribyl, Patrick; Vincena, Stephen ^[2]; Kintner, Paul ^[3]; Pickett, Jolene ^[4]; Chiang, Franklin; Judy, Jack ^[5]

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1. Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824 (United States)
2. Basic Plasma Science Facility, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (United States)
4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 (United States)
5. Electrical Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)

Electrostatic solitary structures are generated by injection of a suprathermal electron beam parallel to the magnetic field in a laboratory plasma. Electric microprobes with tips smaller than the Debye length ({lambda}{sub De}) enabled the measurement of positive potential pulses with half-widths 4 to 25{lambda}{sub De} and velocities 1 to 3 times the background electron thermal speed. Nonlinear wave packets of similar velocities and scales are also observed, indicating that the two descend from the same mode which is consistent with the electrostatic whistler mode and result from an instability likely to be driven by field-aligned currents.

• OSTI ID: 21466951
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.115001; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BEAM INJECTION
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
DEBYE LENGTH
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PLASMA POTENTIAL
PULSES
SOLITONS
VELOCITY
WAVE PACKETS
WHISTLER INSTABILITY
BEAMS
CURRENTS
DIMENSIONS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
INSTABILITY
LENGTH
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
QUASI PARTICLES