Theoretical and Numerical Study of Non-Linear Interactions between211 Electromagnetic Waves and Space Plasma

摘要

The interaction between plasma and electromagnetic high-frequency waves gives211u001erise to phenomena on many time scales. On a fast, high-frequency time scale 211u001eelectromagnetic waves interact with electrons in the plasma, creating high-211u001efrequency electron waves. On a much slower, low-frequency time scale, non-linear 211u001eprocesses create particle density fluctuations and ion-acoustic waves in the 211u001eplasmas. This thesis is a numerical study based on the so called Zakharov 211u001eequations which model the non-linear interaction between high-frequency 211u001eelectromagentic waves and low-frequency plasma waves on these two time scales. 211u001eThey are derived from a combination of the Navier-Stokes and Maxwell equations. 211u001eThe Zakharov model separates the time scales and makes it possible to analyze 211u001ecertain basic non-linear properties of the plasma. However, the very slow thermal 211u001etime scale phenomena are neglected altogether.