Variation of Langmuir wave polarization with electron beam speed in type III radio bursts

Abstract

Observations by the twin STEREO spacecraft of in-situ electric field waveforms and radio signatures associated with type III radio bursts have demonstrated that the polarization of electron beam-driven waves near the local plasma frequency depends strongly on the speed of the driving electron beam. We expand upon a previous study by including all radio bursts with in-situ waveforms observed by STEREO in 2011. The expanded data set contains five times more radio bursts (35 up from 7) and three times as many Langmuir waves (663 up from 168). While this expanded study supports the results of the original study, that faster (slower) beam electrons drive waves with strong (weak) electric fields perpendicular to the local magnetic field, the larger data set emphasizes that the observation of strong perpendicular electric fields at high electron beam speeds is probabilistic rather than definite. This property supports the interpretation of wave polarization dependence on beam speed as Langmuir/z-mode waves shifted to small wave number through interaction with turbulent solar wind density fluctuations.