THEORY OF PLASMA WAVE RESONANCES IN A HOT NONUNIFORM PLASMA.

Abstract

The work is concerned with the resonant motion exhibited by a plasma column which is excited by an oscillating electric field transverse to the column. A theory is considered which includes the effects of electron temperature and of nonuniformities in the plasma electron density. The theory yields a fourth order differential equation which is integrated numerically to find the predicted resonant frequencies. It is concluded that the nonuniform electron density plays a crucial role in determining the resonant frequencies. The effect of an axial magnetic field upon the resonances was investigated. It is shown that the field causes each resonance to split into a right and left circularly polarized resonance whose frequencies depend on the field strength. These preliminary calculations were checked with experiment and they give good qualitative agreement. Possible diagnostic uses of these results are considered. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0603534

Entities

People

  • Jerald V. Parker

Organizations

  • California Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Differential Equations
  • Electric Fields
  • Electron Density
  • Electrons
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Nonuniform
  • Plasma Waves
  • Resonance
  • Resonant Frequency

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics