Plasma waves in Lagrangian coordinates

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:6652227

Lancellotti, C; Dorning, J J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville (United States)

The propagation of waves in a rarefied plasma has been studied extensively through the analysis of the well-known Vlasov-Poisson-Ampere system. It is shown here that new insights into the solution of this problem can be obtained by recasting it in Lagrangian coordinates. To do this, a completely new formulation is introduced that leads to the Lagrangian description of the kinetic theory problem. The full nonlinear Vlasov equation is, of course, solved exactly along single-particle trajectories, while the Poisson and Ampere equations are transformed into a new nonlinear system for the Lagrangian field plus the initial curve in the x-v phase plane that determines the field at a later time. We then show how, at first order, these new equations give rise to a description of the field evolution that includes the classical Landau theory as a particular case but is compatible with much more general initial conditions and allows new solutions beyond the reach of the standard linear theory.

• OSTI ID: 6652227
• Report Number(s): CONF-921102--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 66
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700340* -- Plasma Waves
Oscillations
& Instabilities-- (1992-)
DAMPING
EQUATIONS
FUNCTIONS
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
LANDAU DAMPING
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PHASE VELOCITY
PLASMA WAVES
VELOCITY
WAVE PROPAGATION