Saturation of trapped particle instability induced by vortex-merging in electron plasma waves

The dynamics of electron-plasma waves is described at arbitrary collisionality by considering the full Coulomb collision operator. The description is based on a Hermite–Laguerre decomposition of the velocity dependence of the electron distribution function. The damping rate, frequency and eigenmode spectrum of electron-plasma waves are found as functions of the collision frequency and wavelength. A comparison is made between the collisionless Landau damping limit, the Lenard–Bernstein and Dougherty collision operators and the electron–ion collision operator, finding large deviations in the damping rates and eigenmode spectra. A purely damped entropy mode, characteristic of a plasma where pitch-angle scattering effects are dominant with respect to collisionless effects, is shown to emerge numerically, and its dispersion relation is analytically derived. It is shown that such a mode is absent when simplified collision operators are used, and that like-particle collisions strongly influence the damping rate of the entropy mode.

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Mechanisms for Flash Phase Phenomena in Solar Flares

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900234335 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 57 ◽

pp. 253-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dean F. Smith

Keyword(s):

Solar Flares ◽

Acoustic Waves ◽

Plasma Waves ◽

Electron Plasma ◽

X Rays ◽

Fermi Acceleration ◽

Acceleration Region ◽

Low Frequencies ◽

Coulomb Collisions ◽

The Earth

Mechanisms for explaining the various forms of particles and radiation observed during the flash phase of solar flares are reviewed under the working hypothesis that the flash phase is the time in which electrons and to a lesser degree protons are accelerated in less than one second. A succession of such accelerations is allowed to explain longer lasting or quasi-periodic phenomena. Mechanisms capable of such acceleration are reviewed and it is concluded that first-order Fermi acceleration in a reconnecting current sheet is the most likely basic process. Such acceleration, however, gives rise to a rather narrow distribution of particle velocities along a given field line which is unstable to the production of electron plasma and ion-acoustic waves. This plasma turbulence can heat the plasma to produce soft X-rays and filter the initially narrow velocity distribution to produce a power law energy distribution. Electrons travelling inward from the acceleration region produce hard X-rays by bremsstrahlung and microwave bursts by gyro-synchrotron emission. Whereas the interpretation of X-ray spectra is relatively straightforward, the interpretation of microwave spectra is difficult because the source at low frequencies can be made optically thick by several different mechanisms.Electrons travelling further inward presumably thermalize and produce impulsive EUV and Hα emission. The theory for these emissions, although amenable to present techniques in radiative transfer, has not been worked out. Electrons travelling outward give rise to type III radio bursts by excitation of electron plasma waves and the electrons observed at the Earth. Study of the interaction of a stream of electrons with the ambient plasma shows that the electron spectra observed at the Earth do not necessarily reflect their spectrum at the acceleration region since they interact via plasma waves as well as through Coulomb collisions. The mechanisms for the conversion of plasma waves into radiation and the propagation of the radiation from its source to the observer are reviewed.

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