Low‐frequency waves associated with Langmuir waves in solar wind

Abstract

The Ulysses spacecraft has detected several events of low‐frequency electromagnetic waves in association with Langmuir waves in the solar wind. The high time resolution observations show that the Langmuir waves are very intense and occur as broad peaks superposed by collapsing millisecond spikes. The low‐frequency waves are identified as electromagnetic lower hybrid waves. The observed energy densities of these waves often exceed the strong turbulence thresholds. It is shown that none of the parametric decay instabilities involving Langmuir and low‐frequency waves are energetically favorable to explain the present observations. The low‐frequency waves are proposed to arise from currents associated with gradients in the electron beam originating at sites where Langmuir waves scatter the beam electrons.