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Growth of low-frequency waves due to a photon beam in a magnetized electron–positron plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1997

QINGHUAN LUO  and
D. B. MELROSE
QINGHUAN LUO
Affiliation:
Present address: Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia Division of Space Geophysics, National Institute for Space Research, PO Box 515, 12201-970 S.J. Campos–SP, Brazil Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
D. B. MELROSE
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Abstract

The effect of a beam of radio waves of very high brightness passing through a cold, magnetized, electron–positron plasma is discussed. The properties of the natural wave modes in such a plasma are summarized, and approximate forms for the nonlinear response tensor are written down. Photon-beam-induced instabilities of low-frequency waves in the pair plasma are analysed in the random-phase approximation. When three-wave interactions involve two high-frequency waves in the same mode and a low-frequency wave in a different mode, wave–wave interactions are similar to wave–particle interactions in that photons act like particles that emit and absorb low-frequency waves. The absorption coefficients for various low-frequency waves due to a photon beam are evaluated. In a pure electron–positron plasma, photon-beam-induced instabilities can be effective only when either the high-frequency or the low-frequency waves are strongly modified by the magnetic field. The growth of the low-frequency waves is most effective when the high-frequency photon beam has a frequency close to the cyclotron frequency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , August 1997 , pp. 345 - 366
Copyright
1997 Cambridge University Press

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