Title: Resonant excitation of whistler waves by a helical electron beam

Abstract

Chorus-like whistler mode waves that are known to play a fundamental role in driving radiation belt dynamics are excited on the Large Plasma Device by the injection of a helical electron beam into a cold plasma. The mode structure of the excited whistler wave is identified using a phase correlation technique showing that the waves are excited through a combination of Landau resonance, cyclotron resonance, and anomalous cyclotron resonance. The dominant wave mode excited through cyclotron resonance is quasi-parallel propagating, whereas wave modes excited through Landau resonance and anomalous cyclotron resonance propagate at oblique angles that are close to the resonance cone. An analysis of the linear wave growth rates captures the major observations in the experiment. Here, the results have important implications for the generation process of whistler waves in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere.

Authors:

An, X. ^[1]; Van Compernolle, B. ^[1]; Bortnik, J. ^[1]; Thorne, R. M. ^[1]; Chen, L. ^[2]; Li, W. ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)

Publication Date:

2016-01-25

Research Org.:

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI Identifier:

1467653

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1402230

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0010578

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 43; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

58 GEOSCIENCES; whistler wave; electron beam; wave excitation