The feature of the wake-plasma of a space vehicle induced by modulational instability

Abstract

The characteristics of modulation instability in the wake plasma of space vehicle are obtained, based on the nonlinear coupling equations of the wake plasma and space vehicle in non-steady-state and non-static limit. It is found that the modulation instability is strongly related to the disturbance angle. The growth rate of transverse modulation instability is always much greater than that of longitudinal ones. Then the characteristic scale of the localized fields and density cavitons in the wake plasma of space vehicle are mainly determined by the transverse modulation instability. The growth rate of modulation instability increasing with the ponderomotive force of pump wave field, but the characteristic scale decreasing with it. Furthermore, the growth rate of modulation instability has maximum value on the central axis of space vehicle in the wake plasma, and the value increasing with the speed of space vehicle. The present results can provide a more detailed theoretical reference for the detection of space vehicle in ionospheric and stealth aircraft in plasma environments.