Wave emission by resonance crossing

Abstract

The emission of collective waves by a moving charged particle in a nonuniform medium is discussed. Emission occurs in a nonuniform medium when the local dispersion relation of the collective wave is satisfied. This is a form of resonance crossing. Using the Weyl symbol calculus, a local expansion of the collective wave equation driven by the particle source is derived in the neighborhood of the crossing. The collective wave dispersion manifold and the gyroballistic wave dispersion manifold can be used as a pair of local coordinates in the neighborhood of the resonance crossing, which greatly simplifies the analysis. This change of representation is carried out using a metaplectic transform (a generalization of the fourier transform). The Wigner function of the emitted wave field is then computed in the new coordinates. The Wigner function is a phase space scalar, hence the numerical value is invariant under linear canonical transformations. This invariance is invoked to finally arrive at the Wigner function in the original (physical) coordinates. The wave-action and -energy emission rates are then computed from the Wigner function.