Emission of electromagnetic radiation from beam driven plasmas

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5258635

Newman, D L

Two production mechanisms for electromagnetic radiation from a plasma containing electron-beam-driven weak Langmuir turbulence are studied: induced Compton conversion and two-Langmuir-wave coalescence. Induced Compton conversion in which a Langmuir wave scatters off a relativistic electron while converting into a transversely polarized electromagnetic wave is considered as a means for producing amplified electromagnetic radiation from a beam-plasma system at frequencies well above the electron plasma frequency. The induced emission growth rates of the radiation produced by a monoenergetic ultrarelativistic electron beam are determined as a function of the Langmuir turbulence spectrum in the background plasma and are numerically evaluated for a range of model Langmuir spectra. Induced Compton conversion can play a role in emission from astrophysical beam-plasma systems if the electron beam is highly relativistic and sufficiently narrow. However, it is found that the growth rates for this process are too small in all cases studied to account for the intense high-frequency radiation observed in laboratory experiments. Two-Langmuir-wave coalescence as a means of producing radiation at 2omega/sub p/ is investigated in the setting of the earth's foreshock.

• Research Organization: Colorado Univ., Boulder (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5258635
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
BEAMS
COMPTON EFFECT
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON BEAMS
EMISSION
INTERACTIONS
LEPTON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLASMA WAVES
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING