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Landau damping in space plasmasThe Landau damping of electrostatic Langmuir waves and ion-acoustic waves in a hot, isotropic, nonmagnetized, generalized Lorentzian plasma is analyzed using the modified plasma dispersion function. Numerical solutions for the real and imaginary parts of the wave frequency omega sub 0 - (i)(gamma) have been obtained as a function of the normalized wave number (k)(lambda sub D), where lambda sub D is the electron Debye length. For both particle distributions the electrostatic modes are found to be strongly damped at short wavelengths. At long wavelengths, this damping becomes less severe, but the attenuation of Langmuir waves is much stronger for a generalized Lorentzian plasma than for a Maxwellian plasma. It is concluded that Landau damping of ion-acoustic waves is only slightly affected by the presence of a high energy tail, but is strongly dependent on the ion temperature.
Document ID
19910061956
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Thorne, Richard M.
(California, University Los Angeles, United States)
Summers, Danny
(Newfoundland, Memorial University Saint John's, Canada)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1991
Publication Information
Publication: Physics of Fluids B
Volume: 3
Issue: 8 pt
ISSN: 0899-8221
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
91A46579
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-1639
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF ATM-87-18108
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSERC-A-0621
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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