Skip to content
BY-NC-ND 3.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter June 2, 2014

Resonant Excitation of High Amplitude Oscillations and Hydrodynamic Wave Breaking in a Streaming Cold Plasma

  • P. Mulser , H. Takabe and K. Mima

The excitation of large amplitude electron oscillations in a streaming cold plasma and the minimum threshold of wave breaking in the resonant region are investigated analytically as a function of flow velocity. The problem is reduced to the solution of a driven harmonic oscillator with time varying eigenfrequency ωp(t) in a self-consistent, stationary ion density profile. An analytical solution is presented and applied to the correct wave breaking criterion in a streaming plasma. Wave breaking sets in when the driver amplitude Êd obeys the inequality

which shows that the threshold is proportional to the driver frequency ω and to the flow velocity at the resonance point, vc; however, it is independent of the density scale length. Resonance ends at η = π/2. The denominator assumes there the value 2.759. η is a dimensionless time which measures the transit time of a volume element through resonance.

Received: 1982-2-20
Published Online: 2014-6-2
Published in Print: 1982-3-1

© 1946 – 2014: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Downloaded on 28.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1982-0302/html
Scroll to top button