Electron cyclotron absorption for oblique propagation in loss-cone plasmas

Abstract

The components of the dielectric tensor for a plasma described by a relativistic loss-cone electron distribution are written in a simple way, which takes full account of relativistic effects, harmonics and Larmor radius, for perpendicular and oblique propagation. For sufficiently oblique propagation and temperatures in the thermonuclear range, a still simpler form of the dielectric tensor is derived. The role of the wave parameters in the absorption is discussed, and some comments are made about the weakly relativistic and non-relativistic approaches. A numerical example is given for both the extraordinary and ordinary modes.