Propagation of electronic longitudinal modes in a truncated maxwellian plasma

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical and experimental study of the propagation of longitudinal electron waves in a collisionless, homogeneous, isotropic plasma, whose velocity distribution function is a truncated Maxwellian. Using the method of residues and numerical calculation, the behaviour of the electric field is found to be in good agreement with experimental results. The plasma parameters can be deduced from the theoretical dispersion curves matching the experimental points; they are found to agree well with those measured by electrostatic probes. In conclusion, a pragmatic approach to the resolution of the plasma inverse problem is discussed.