Amplification of a slipping quasi-monochromatic wave pulse by an electron flow with a wide velocity spread

Abstract

Cherenkov interaction between a wave pulse and a flow of electrons possessing a very wide (on the scale of the characteristic band of the resonant electron–wave interaction) velocity spread is considered. We show that if the wave pulse is short enough, and its group velocity is close to the phase velocity, then the effect of the slippage of the resonant electrons with respect to the wave pulse leads to the transformation of an inert electronic medium into an active one (absorbing or amplifying the wave pulse, depending on the slippage sign). This can be a mechanism of formation of short powerful electromagnetic pulses as a result of amplification of short-pulse weak noises by electron flows which, due to natural reasons, have a large velocity spread, namely, electron flows in the magnetosphere of planets, in the plasma envelope of brown dwarfs and neutron stars, as well as in electron masers with weak electron–wave interaction (including ultra-relativistic electron beams used in free-electron lasers).