Degenerate mixing of plasma waves on cold, magnetized single-species plasmas
- Physics Department, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)
In the cold-fluid dispersion relation {omega}={omega}{sub p}/[1+(k{sub perpendicular}/k{sub z}){sup 2}]{sup 1/2} for Trivelpiece-Gould waves on an infinitely long magnetized plasma cylinder, the transverse and axial wavenumbers appear only in the combination k{sub perpendicular}/k{sub z}. As a result, for any frequency {omega}<{omega}{sub p}, there are infinitely many degenerate waves, all having the same value of k{sub perpendicular}/k{sub z}. On a cold finite-length plasma column, these degenerate waves reflect into one another at the ends; thus, each standing-wave normal mode of the bounded plasma is a mixture of many degenerate waves, not a single standing wave as is often assumed. A striking feature of the many-wave modes is that the short-wavelength waves often add constructively along resonance cones given by dz/dr={+-}({omega}{sub p}{sup 2}/{omega}{sup 2}-1){sup 1/2}. Also, the presence of short wavelengths in the admixture for a predominantly long-wavelength mode enhances the viscous damping beyond what the single-wave approximation would predict. Here, numerical solutions are obtained for modes of a cylindrical plasma column with rounded ends. Exploiting the fact that the modes of a spheroidal plasma are known analytically (the Dubin modes), a perturbation analysis is used to investigate the mixing of low-order, nearly degenerate Dubin modes caused by small deformations of a plasma spheroid.
- OSTI ID:
- 22046938
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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