A simulation study of electron-scale turbulence generation by nonlinear wave–wave interaction in laser-produced plasmas

Abstract

A laboratory simulation of a model based on the nonlinear interaction of plasma waves is presented to study the electron-scale magnetic turbulence in the magnetized plasma. In this perspective, the model equations of the Trivelpiece–Gould (TG) mode and extraordinary mode (pump wave) are developed, taking the relativistic change in electron mass and the ponderomotive force into account. Laboratory simulations utilizing the pseudo-spectral method along with the predictor–corrector scheme and finite difference method are performed to solve the formulated coupled model equations. The propagation angle (θ) of the TG mode from the magnetic field affects the dispersive properties of the dynamics (TG mode), which, in turn, impact the density perturbation, scale size of the filamentary structures, density harmonics, magnetic field enhancement, and the spectral index of the turbulence generation. The simulation results reveal that the observed turbulent spectra resemble the magnetic turbulence reported in various studies of the interaction of the intense laser with plasma at the laboratory astrophysics scale relevant to astrophysical events. A simplified model in the paraxial limit is also given to understand the effect of the propagation direction (angle of propagation θ) of the TG mode on the localized structures of the pump laser beam in the magnetized plasma.