Parametric excitation of ion density fluctuations in the relativistic beam--plasma interaction

Technical Report · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1976

OSTI ID:7346528

Schamel, H; Lee, Y C; Morales, G J

When a weak and cold relativistic electron beam interacts with a dense plasma it generates a nearly monochromatic wave of high intensity which triggers the growth of parametric instabilities. The present work investigates this process by using a hybrid technique in which the fully relativistic motion of the beam particles is treated numerically, while the behavior of the background plasma and the parametrically excited waves is treated analytically through appropriate linear dielectric functions. It is found that the self-consistent excitation of large ion density fluctuations leads to the decoupling of the beam from the background plasma, hence limiting the amount of energy that can be extracted from the beam. By adjusting the various parameters of the problem it is found that up to 23% of the initial beam energy can be transferred to the electrostatic waves. The large ion fluctuations responsible for decoupling the beam correspond to purely growing modes which exhibit secular growth in time. (GRA)

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Plasma Physics Group
• OSTI ID: 7346528
• Report Number(s): AD-A-021459; PPG-251
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
BEAM INJECTION
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
BEAMS
ELECTRON BEAMS
INSTABILITY
LEPTON BEAMS
PARAMETRIC INSTABILITIES
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
PLASMA WAVES
RELATIVISTIC BEAM INJECTION