Nonlinear low frequency electromagnetic waves in a relativistic electron-positron plasma

Using an exact solution of Maxwell's equations and the relativistic equations of motion for electrons and positrons we demonstrate the existence of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency considerably lower that the electron cyclotron frequency. For such a wave the cutoff frequency is determined by the Langmuir frequency and by the wave amplitude. For realistic pulsar parameters a remarkable reduction in the cutoff frequency is then controlled by nonlinear relativistic effects. Modulation instability of this wave is also investigated both analytically and numerically.     

Electromagnetic Field of a Cylinder with a Periodic Current: Energy Flux from a Relativistic Jet

An exact solution is obtained for the electromagnetic field surrounding an infinitely long, conducting cylinder with a periodic axial electric current. The solution simultaneously gives the field near the cylinder and in the transition to the wave zone. The flux of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the cylinder is calculated for oscillations with long wavelengths greatly exceeding the radius of the cylinder. This solution can be used to describe the electromagnetic field around narrowly collimated jets from active galactic nuclei and quasars.     

Jovian magnetospheric ion cyclotron instability in the presence of parallel electric field

A dispersion relation for left hand circularly polarized electromagnetic wave propagation in an anisotropic magnetoplasma in the presence of a very weak parallel electrostatic field has been derived with the help of linearized Vlasov and Maxwell equations. An expression of the growth rate has been derived in presence of parallel electric field for ion-cyclotron electromagnetic wave in an anisotropic media. The modification made in the growth rate by introducing parallel electric field and temperature anisotropy has been studied for fully ionized hydrogen plasma with the help of observations made on Jovian ionosphere and magnetosphere atL = 5.6 R_j. It is concluded that the growth (damping) of ion-cyclotron electromagnetic wave is possible when the wave vector is parallel (antiparallel) to the static electric field and effect is more pronounced at higher wave number.     

Induced wave scattering in ionospheric plasma

Parametric excitation of plasma oscillations in the ionosphere by an electromagnetic wave near the reflection level has been considered. The spectrum of plasma waves forms as a result of action of the source (a pump wave), non-linear transfer towards large scales and damping. The results of the theory are in satisfactory agreement with the experiment.     

Torsion,massive electrodynamics and gravitation induced by scalar fields

The equivalence of Lagrangian containing gravitational, electromagnetic, scalar, and torsion fields is discussed. It is shown that the equation for the variation of the scalar field leads to a torsion wave equation generated by electromagnetic field leads to a torsion wave equation generated by electromagnetic fields. The system is proved to be equivalent to a Proca field coupling torsion non-minimally to a massive photon and having the scalar Higgs field as a strength of this photon-torsion coupling. The generalized Maxwell equations containing the scalar fields are obtained. The torsion potential around the Sun or a more massive collapsing star in the weak field limit is estimated.     

Parametric Decay of a Circularly Polarized Electromagnetic Wave in an Electron-Positron Magnetized Plasma

We study the parametric decays of an electromagnetic wave propagating along an external magnetic field in an electron-positron plasma. We include weakly relativistic effects on the particle motions in the wave field, and the nonlinear ponderomotive force. We find resonant and nonresonant wave couplings. These include, ordinary decay instabilities, in which the pump wave decays into an electro-acoustic mode and a sideband wave. There are also nonresonant couplings involving two sideband waves, and a nonresonant modulational instability in which the pump wave decays into two sideband modes. Depending on the parameters involved, there is a resonant modulational instability involving a forward propagating electro-acoustic mode and a sideband daughter wave.     

Nonlinear Coupling of Langmuir Waves with Whistler Waves in the Solar Wind

Close temporal correlation between high-frequency Langmuir waves and low-frequency electromagnetic whistler waves has been observed recently within magnetic holes of the solar wind. In order to account for these observations, a theory is formulated to describe the nonlinear coupling of Langmuir waves and whistler waves. It is shown that a Langmuir wave can interact nonlinearly with a whistler wave to produce either right-hand or left-hand circularly polarized electromagnetic waves. Nonlinear coupling of Langmuir waves and whistler waves may lead to the formation of modulated Langmuir wave packets as well as the generation of circularly polarized radio waves at the plasma frequency in the solar wind. Numerical examples of whistler frequency, nonlinear growth rate and modulation frequency for solar wind parameters are calculated.     

Trapping of electromagnetic waves by nonlinear resonant interactions with ion sound waves

Resonant wave-wave interaction among one ion sound wave and two electro-magnetic waves in an isotropic plasma is studied. The emphasis is on the possibility of trapping the electromagnetic wave. Equations for the three-wave system are derived. One particularly interesting case is that for which the frequency of ion sound wave is much less than the frequency of electromagnetic waves. For this case it is shown that energy exchange takes place only between the two high frequency waves. The ion sound wave does not participate in the energy exchange process but acts as a kind of catalyst for the interaction. Simple solutions are obtained. It is found that the electromagnetic energy is trapped within a certain spatial region. The trapping width is found to depend, among other parameters, on the magnitude of ion sound wave perturbation. Possible application of the theory to topside ionospheric observations of field-aligned propagation is discussed.     

Induced Raman scattering in pulsar magnetospheres

It is shown that induced Raman scattering of electromagnetic waves in the strongly magnetized electron–positron plasma of pulsar magnetospheres may be important for wave propagation and as an effective saturation mechanism for electromagnetic instabilities. The frequencies at which strong Raman scattering occurs in the outer parts of a magnetosphere fall into the observed radio band. The typical threshold intensities for the strong Raman scattering are of the order of the observed intensities, implying that pulsar magnetospheres may be optically thick to Raman scattering of electromagnetic waves.     

Strong electromagnetic waves in a magnetized relativistic electron-positron plasma

It is shown that in a strongly magnetized relativistic electron-positron plasma, strongly localized large amplitude circularly polarized electromagnetic wave pulses exist. The localization is due to relativistic mass variation as well as ponderomotive force effects. Three types of pulses are found analytically: the sharply spiked pulse in a strongly magnetized cold plasma, the smooth pulse in a week magnetized warm plasma, and the moderately spiked pulse for a weakly magnetized cold plasma. The physical mechanisms giving rise to these pulses are distinct for each case. Possible implications of our investigation to pulsar radiation are discussed.     

The interaction of an obliquely incidents-polarized plane electromagnetic wave at a warm moving magnetized plasma half-space

The interaction of ans-polarized plane electromagnetic wave incident from a dielectric (or vacuum) region on awarm moving magnetized plasma half-space is considered. The external magnetic field is assumed to be normal to the direction of the wave normal and the velocity of the moving medium. Using the first three moment equations, together with Maxwell's electromagnetic equations, we construct the constitutive relations in the rest frame of the moving medium. The constitutive relations are then transformed to the laboratory frame by invokingMinkowski's equations for the moving plasma medium, and the dispersion relation for the propagating ordinary mode in the moving medium is derived. Expressions are obtained for the phase and group velocities and the index of refraction for the ordinary mode, as also for power reflection and transmission coefficients. It is found that in contrast to the case of a cold magnetized plasma, the ordinary electromagnetic mode excited in the warm magnetoplasma medium getsmodified due to the presence of an external magnetic field. In addition, the various reflection and transmission characteristics for a warm magnetoplasma depend on the velocity of the moving plasma as well as on the strength of the applied magnetic field, as against the case for a cold moving magnetized plasma. Numerical results on the reflection coefficient are presented for several values of the parameters characterizing the electron-plasma temperature, the velocity of the moving medium and the strength of the applied magnetic field.     

Rayleigh waves in magneto-thermo-microelastic half-space under initial stress

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the influence both of intitial stress and magnetic field on the propagation of Rayleigh waves in thermo-microelastic half-space subjected to certain boundary conditions. The wave velocity equation has been obtained. If the initial stress and the electromagnetic field are ignored, the frequency equation as obtained by Locket (1958).     

Scattering of an Electromagnetic Wave on a Dielectric Layer Bounded on Two Sides by Two Different Homogeneous, Semi-Infinite Media

The problem of the passage of a plane electromagnetic wave through an arbitrary, inhomogeneous dielectric layer bounded on two sides by two different homogeneous, semi-infinite media is considered. Algebraic relations are obtained between the amplitudes of transmission and reflection (the scattering amplitudes) for the problem under consideration and the wave scattering amplitudes when the layer is bounded on both sides by a vacuum. It is shown that for s and p polarized fields the scattering problem (a boundary-value problem) can be formulated as a Cauchy problem directly for the s and p wave equations. It is also shown that the problem of finding the field inside the layer also reduces to a Cauchy problem in the general case.     

Loop heating by D.C. electric current and electromagnetic wave emissions simulated by 3-D EM particle code

We have shown that a current-carrying plasma loop can be heated by magnetic pinch driven by the pressure imbalance between inside and outside the loop, using a 3-dimensional electromagnetic (EM) particle code. Both electrons and ions in the loop can be heated in the direction perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field, therefore the perpendicular temperature can be increased about 10 times compared with the parallel temperature. This temperature anisotropy produced by the magnetic pinch heating can induce a plasma instability, by which high-frequency electromagnetic waves can be excited. The plasma current which is enhanced by the magnetic pinch can also excite a kinetic kink instability, which can heat ions perpendicular to the magnetic field. The heating mechanism of ions as well as the electromagnetic emission could be important for an understanding of the coronal loop heating and the electromagnetic wave emissions from active coronal regions.     

Gravitational and electromagnetic emission by magnetized coalescing binary systems

We discuss the possibility to obtain an electromagnetic emission accompanying the gravitational waves emitted in the coalescence of a compact binary system. Motivated by the existence of black hole configurations with open magnetic field lines along the rotation axis, we consider a magnetic dipole in the system, the evolution of which leads to (i) electromagnetic radiation, and (ii) a contribution to the gravitational radiation, the luminosity of both being evaluated. Starting from the observations on magnetars, we impose upper limits for both the electromagnetic emission and the contribution of the magnetic dipole to the gravitational wave emission. Adopting this model for the evolution of neutron star binaries leading to short gamma ray bursts, we compare the correction originated by the electromagnetic field to the gravitational waves emission, finding that they are comparable for particular values of the magnetic field and of the orbital radius of the binary system. Finally we calculate the electromagnetic and gravitational wave energy outputs which result comparable for some values of magnetic field and radius.     

Self-modulation of pulsar radiation in strongly magnetized electron-positron plasmas

A nonlinear Schrödinger equation is obtained for linearly polarized electromagnetic waves propagating across the ambient magnetic field in an electron-positron plasma. The nonlinearities arising from wave intensity induced particle mass modulation, as well as harmonic generation are incorporated. Modulational instability and localization of pulsar radiation are investigated.     

Generation of electromagnetic waves in the electron-positron plasma in the vicinity of a pulsar

The problem of the efficiency of the ion-synchrotron maser proposed by Hoshino and Arons is analyzed in a linear approximation. A hot, relativistic, electron-positron plasma penetrated by a relativistic ion beam is considered. At the front of the magnetosonic shock wave an electromagnetic wave is generated, which should be damped on positrons of the plasma. This should, in turn, result in synchrotron emission from energetic positrons in the high-frequency range, far above the natural frequencies of the plasma. It is shown that one must allow simultaneously for the conditions of resonance at a high harmonic of the ion-cyclotron frequency and at the fundamental of the electron-cyclotron frequency. Natural transverse waves are generated in the process, but within the framework of the linear theory there is no positron acceleration due to the kinetic energy of ions. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 389-396, July–September, 2000.     

Electromagnetic wave instability in a relativistic electron-positron-ion plasma

By employing the anisotropic plasma distribution function, the stability of circularly polarized electromagnetic (EM) waves is studied in a relativistically hot electron-positron-ion (e-p-i) plasma, investigating two specific scenarios. First, linear dispersion relations associated with the transverse EM waves are analyzed in different possible frequency regimes. The expression of the aperiodic hydrodynamic instability is obtained and numerically the transverse EM modes are shown to grow exponentially. Secondly, we have found that the transverse electromagnetic wave interact with a collisionless anisotropic e-p-i plasma and damp through the nonlinear Landau damping phenomena. Taking the effects of the latter into consideration, a kinetic nonlinear Schrödinger equation is derived with local and nonlocal nonlinearities, computing the damping rates. The present work should be helpful to understand the linear and nonlinear properties of the intense EM waves in hot relativistically astrophysical plasmas, e.g., pulsars, black holes, neutron stars, etc.     

Nonlinearly coupled electromagnetic ion-cyclotron and magnetosonic waves in astrophysical plasmas

A set of three nonlinearly coupled equations governing the interaction between electromagnetic ion-cyclotron and magnetosonic waves is derived. In appropriate limiting cases, the set yields simplified equations. On the other hand, the full set of equations is used to derive a general dispersion relation for the parametric interaction of electromagnetically modulated ion-cyclotron wave packets. An analytical expression for the growth rate of the electromagnetic modulational instability is presented. The relevance of our investigation to non-thermal electromagnetic fluctuations in astrophysical and cometary plasmas is pointed out.     

On particle acceleration and radiation output in stochastic electromagnetic fields

We demonstrate that when charged particles interact with a plane electromagnetic wave which possesses a random amplitude, then the particles are accelerated to high energy because they are pushed along by the wave's Poynting vector. Not only are they so accelerated, as they are carried along by the wave, but also they diffuse at right angles to the direction of the Poynting flux (i.e. in the direction of the wave's electric field). The ultimate energy that such particles can reach is determined when they radiate as much energyper unit time as they receive from the plane wave. For numbers believed typical of the Crab nebula this ultimate energy is of order 10¹⁰ mc ². We have done these calculations to show that turbulent electromagnetic waves are quite efficient in generating high energy particles from low energy particles. Thus when the low frequency coherent waves emitted by a magnetized rotating neutron star are turned into incoherent waves because of wave-plasma interactions in a surrounding nebula, they still accelerate particles to rather high energies. Accordingly, while it obviously takes less time to produce high energy particles with a coherent wave than with a turbulent wave, the calculations given here show that the bulk of the relativistic electrons in the Crab nebula could still be energized by the turbulent remnants of a coherent wave.