Nonlinear Landau damping of high frequency waves in non-Maxwellian plasmas

Abstract

Space plasmas often possess non-Maxwellian distribution functions which have a significant effect on the plasma waves. When a laser or electron beam passes through a dense plasma, hot low density electron populations can be generated to alter the wave damping/growth rate. In this paper, we present theoretical analysis of the nonlinear Landau damping for Langmuir waves in a plasma where two electron populations are found. The results show a marked difference between the Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian instantaneous damping rates when we employ a non-Maxwellian distribution function called the generalized (r, q) distribution function, which is the generalized form of the kappa and Maxwellian distribution functions. In the limiting case of r = 0 and q → ∞, it reduces to the classical Maxwellian distribution function, and when r = 0 and q → κ + 1, it reduces to the kappa distribution function.