Dynamics of beam-driven Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves including electrostatic decay

Abstract

The evolution of Langmuir waves and ion-acoustic waves stimulated by a hot electron beam in an initially homogeneous plasma is investigated numerically in time, position, and wave number space. Quasilinear interactions between the beam particles and Langmuir waves, nonlinear interactions between the Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves through Langmuir decay processes, and spontaneous emission are taken into account in the kinetic theory employed. For illustrative parameters of those in the solar wind near 1 a.u., nonlinear Langmuir decays are observed to transfer the beam-driven Langmuir waves rapidly out of resonance. The scattered Langmuir waves then undergo further decays, moving sequentially toward small wave numbers, until decay is kinematically prohibited. The main features of the evolution of Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves are spatially inhomogeneous. The scattered Langmuir spectra increase and eventually reach or exceed the beam-driven Langmuir spectra at a given spatial location (except in regions where further decays proceed). The ion-acoustic waves are relatively weak and subject to damping at the later stages of their evolution. The development of fine structures in the product Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves are observed, due to depletion of their energy by decay and dominant damping effects, respectively. The propagation of the beam is essentially unaffected by the operation of the decay process. The decay process is thus slaved to the primary beam–plasma evolution, as assumed in previous studies. A variation of the ratio of electron temperature to ion temperature is found to affect not only the ion-acoustic wave levels through effects on the damping rate, but also the dynamics of decay via effects on the decay rate. The latter was not addressed in previous studies. Furthermore, spontaneous emission of ion-acoustic waves is found to affect the dynamics of decay, thus its inclusion is necessary to correctly model the Langmuir and ion-acoustic spectra.