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At least 37 records · Page 2

On self-consistent waves and their stability in warm plasmas. II - Instability of circularly polarized waves both in the presence and the absence of an ambient magnetic field

The stability of a self-consistent, large-amplitude, circularly polarized wave in a warm plasma is investigated. For perturbations to the system propagating normal to the plane of circular polarization, a dispersion relation is derived employing an expansion in the nonlinear wave amplitude and the momentum of the plasma particles in the plane of polarization. Instability results both in the absence and presence of a large-scale magnetic field with a growth rate of the order of the nonlinear wave amplitude.

Lee, M. A.↗

Microscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. I - Linear wave propagation. II - Nonlinear wave interactions

It is pointed out that the conventional iterative analysis of nonlinear plasma wave phenomena, which involves a direct use of Maxwell's equations and the equations describing the particle dynamics, leads to formidable theoretical and algebraic complexities, especially for warm plasmas. As an effective alternative, the Lagrangian method may be applied. It is shown how this method may be used in the microscopic description of small-signal wave propagation and in the study of nonlinear wave interactions. The linear theory is developed for an infinite, homogeneous, collisionless, warm magnetoplasma. A summary is presented of a perturbation expansion scheme described by Galloway and Kim (1971), and Lagrangians to third order in perturbation are considered. Attention is given to the averaged-Lagrangian density, the action-transfer and coupled-mode equations, and the general solution of the coupled-mode equations.

Kim, H.↗

Lagrangian description of warm plasmas

Efforts are described to extend the averaged Lagrangian method of describing small signal wave propagation and nonlinear wave interaction, developed by earlier workers for cold plasmas, to the more general conditions of warm collisionless plasmas, and to demonstrate particularly the effectiveness of the method in analyzing wave-wave interactions. The theory is developed for both the microscopic description and the hydrodynamic approximation to plasma behavior. First, a microscopic Lagrangian is formulated rigorously, and expanded in terms of perturbations about equilibrium. Two methods are then described for deriving a hydrodynamic Lagrangian. In the first of these, the Lagrangian is obtained by velocity integration of the exact microscopic Lagrangian. In the second, the expanded hydrodynamic Lagrangian is obtained directly from the expanded microscopic Lagrangian. As applications of the microscopic Lagrangian, the small-signal dispersion relations and the coupled mode equations are derived for all possible waves in a warm infinite, weakly inhomogeneous magnetoplasma, and their interactions are examined.

Kim, H.↗

Microscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. IV - Macroscopic approximation

The averaged-Lagrangian method is applied to linear wave propagation and nonlinear three-wave interaction in a warm magnetoplasma, in the macroscopic approximation. The microscopic Lagrangian treated by Kim and Crawford (1977) and by Galloway and Crawford (1977) is first expanded to third order in perturbation. Velocity integration is then carried out, before applying Hamilton's principle to obtain a general description of wave propagation and coupling. The results are specialized to the case of interaction between two electron plasma waves and an Alfven wave. The method is shown to be more powerful than the alternative possibility of working from the beginning with a macroscopic Lagrangian density.

Kim, H.↗

Microscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. III - Nonlinear wave-particle interaction

The averaged-Lagrangian method is applied to nonlinear wave-particle interactions in an infinite, homogeneous, magnetic-field-free plasma. The specific example of Langmuir waves is considered, and the combined effects of four-wave interactions and wave-particle interactions are treated. It is demonstrated how the latter lead to diffusion in velocity space, and the quasilinear diffusion equation is derived. The analysis is generalized to the random phase approximation. The paper concludes with a summary of the method as applied in Parts 1-3 of the paper.

Galloway, J. J.↗

Structure of field rotating disturbances in warm plasma

A model in which thermal effects are simulated through use of a multibeam plasma distribution function is developed and investigated to see if solutions which take an initially uniform magnetized plasma to a new uniform state with different field orientation are possible. The momentum conservation integrals are found to admit two classes of such solutions, but only one class exhibits appropriate asymptotic behavior. Extensive numerical integrations have failed to demonstrate the existence of the desired solutions.

Wolfson, R.↗

Macroscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. I Formulation of the Lagrangian

A macroscopic Lagrangian is derived which includes a pressure tensor, heat conduction, and elastic collisions. Its Euler-Lagrange equations are shown to be the Maxwell equations and the macroscopic force law. The corresponding Hamiltonian is derived, and Hamilton's canonical equations are also demonstrated to lead to the Maxwell equations and the macroscopic force law. The treatment is facilitated by working in a mixture of Eulerian coordinates (for the fields) and Lagrangian coordinates (for the particle motions), and the introduction of a macroscopic potential expressed in terms of the plasma thermal energy and the energy losses by heat conduction.

Peng, Y.-K. M.↗

Macroscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. II Nonlinear wave interactions

A macroscopic Lagrangian is simplified to the adiabatic limit and expanded about equilibrium, to third order in perturbation, for three illustrative cases: one-dimensional compression parallel to the static magnetic field, two-dimensional compression perpendicular to the static magnetic field, and three-dimensional compression. As examples of the averaged-Lagrangian method applied to nonlinear wave interactions, coupling coefficients are derived for interactions between two electron plasma waves and an ion acoustic wave, and between an ordinary wave, an electron plasma wave, and an ion acoustic wave.

Kim, H.↗