SOVIET PHYSICS JETP VOLUME 19, NUMBER 5 NOVEMBER, 1964 RADIATION OF TRANSVERSE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES DUE TO SCATTERING OF CHARGED PARTICLES BY PLASMA WAVES A. GAILITIS and V. N. TSYTOVICH P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R. Submitted to JETP editor October 11, 1963 J. Exptl. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 46,1726-1739 (May, 1964) It is shown that the emission of transverse waves by epithermal electrons takes place in the field of a plasma wave (in the classical limit) as the result of dipole radiation due to the oscillations of the electron in the wave (Compton effect on plasma waves), as well as a result of passage of the electron through density inhomogeneities created by the plasma wave. The emission of transverse waves by electrons is forbidden in the nonrelativistic case v = 0 (n = c = 1) by interference of these two effects. The forbiddenness does not hold for particles whose masses differ from that of the electron. The radiation spectrum of electrons and ions is calculated in the broad energy range from nonrelativistic to relativistic energies. The graph technique is used to calculate quantum effects that become significant for secondary quantum energies close to the energy of the charged particles. Possible astrophysical applications are discussed, as well as the possibility of determining particle energy and mean energy density of the plasma waves on the basis of the radiation intensity. It is also shown that the frequencies of transverse waves produced in the scattering of cosmic ray electrons by plasma waves may considerably exceed the frequency of waves generated by the synchrotron mechanism. INTRODUCTION 1. The problem of the conversion of longitudinal waves of a plasma into transverse waves is of interest from the viewpoint of the study of nonlinear effects in plasma, [t] and also for possible astro- K>-< p, Pe .. Kl~ / ···1(2 I I 4 p2A4 a b c physical applications (see [ 2•3]). FIG. 1 In the present work we consider the conversion of a plasma wave into a transverse wave by scattering from an isolated, epithermal charged particle. It is necessary to keep in mind that any plasma terest as to the presence of transverse waves in a beam of fast particles as the result of scattering of the plasma waves by the beam particles. For a low-density beam, the result can be obtained by particle can be regarded as a test particle. If the means of the scattering probabilities from single analysis is generalized by taking into account spa- particles as found below. tial dispersion, then the resultant probabilities will 2. We shall consider a set of weakly interacting enter directly into the "kinetic equation" that des- charged particles, i.e., the so-called collision-free cribes the nonlinear effects of wave conversion in plasma. The effects of interaction of waves in such the plasma. Here we are interested in elementary a system with charged particles can be considered processes and carry out a detailed study, including by perturbation theory. If the nonlinear effects in the ultrarelativistic limit. The study of an isolated a vacuum correspond to closed electron loops, [4] fast charged particle in a medium is essential also then in a plasma, in the presence of real particles, for questions of the passage through matter of fast the conversion of waves comes about in the first ° particles whose temperature differs from zero. approximation of perturbation theory as the result Under these conditions, there are excitations in the of scattering from real particles. For a fast medium (longitudinal waves in the plasma), scatter- ing from which produces additional radiation which is superimposed on the other radiation. In Sec. 4, some possibilities are discussed for the observation of such radiation. The problem here is of in- l)ln what follows, in the graphical representations of the process, the plasma longitudinal wave is pictured as a wavy line and the transverse wave by a dotted line, while the virtual quantum is represented by the dashed line. 1165 1166 A. GAILITIS and V. N. TSYTOVICH \ t. .· . . ······~=r{ ~\,,,+~ ••• .< +~_rS+~ 2, ...+ .. \~_+ sS ~ ~··} / . : {::f P, : 1 P1 P1. : P1 .q: I 1 : I .q .q: 1 t .q .q : P, .q I I :.q I • FIG. 2. Interaction between waves by means of plasma electrons. Summation is carried out over all electrons of the plasma. Pz is the momentum of the test electron which does not change as the result of the interaction. epithermal plasma particle, the processes of conversion of longitudinal waves into transverse are represented by Fig. 1. Processes a and b are similar to the Compton effect for a fast particle, while process c describes the nonlinearity of the plasma, the circle corresponding to the nonlinear interaction between the incident plasma wave, which is scattered by the transverse wave, and the field of the electron. In the final analysis, the indicated nonlinearity is connected with scattering processes on the plasma electrons and is determined by the set of graphs shown in Fig. 2. 2l Account of the graph c is very important, since in the nonrelativistic limit it completely compensates the effects arising from a and b. 3. The conservation laws for graphs a, b, and c of Fig. 1 are: (1.1) These connect the frequency w 2 = wt (k2) and the direction of the scattered photon with the initial momenta of the electron p1 and the momentum of the plasma quantum k 1 of frequency w~ = wl (k1) (the angles are defined in Fig. 3). For frequencies w 2 that are much larger than the plasma frequency w 0, we have (1.2) ( E"p 1 , Vt = Pt/E"p1 and, mare the energy, velocity, and mass, respectively, of the electron before scattering). For not very energetic electrons, Bp,/m ~min {mlffi 1, m!f k 1 [}, (1.3) (1.2) becomes simplified: I Wt- k,v, cos l'h I (1)2 = 1 - v, cos tt. (1.4) The maximum frequency for v - 1 corresponds to .J 2 = 0 and .J 1 - 1r (Fig. 3) and is equal to 2)The electron line pz represents any of the electrons of the plasma (l = 1, 2, ... , n). To obtain the vertices c, the graphs on the right side of Fig. 2 are summed over all the electrons of the plasma (denoted by a summation sign). As a result of summation of a large number of diagrams of very high order, the graph c becomes of the same order as a and b. + ffi:,ax;::::; 2e~,m-2 (ffi 1 (k1) k1). (1.5) Upon satisfaction of the inequality (1.3), the quantum effects become negligibly small. The intensity of scattering, with (1.3) satisfied, is calculated in the next section. The opposite limiting case is considered in Sec. 4. FIG. 3. Scattering kinematics. l't 1(1't 2) - angle between the longitudinal (transverse) quantum and the total momentum. 2. CLASSICAL LIMIT It follows from what has been said above that the quantum effects do not play an important role when (1.3) is satisfied. Therefore, in the present section we carry out a purely classical calculation of the radiation of transverse waves by an electron scattered from a plasma wave. Let the electric field of the plasma wave have the form (2.1) The method of successive approximations is used to find the interaction between the wave (2.1) and the electron. In the zeroth approximation, we shall consider the electron to be moving uniformly and rectilinearly with velocity v. A force acts on it from the wave (2.1) of the form eE 0 cos (k1 • v- w 1)t. In the first approximation to uniform motion, the small oscillations shown below are added 3l + r = vt R cos Qt, (2.2) R =- ~ Bp1 _Q_§2_k_t_ (k1 - v (k1v)), (2.3) If the electron moved in a vacuum according to the law (2.2), then for calculation of the resultant radiation it would be sufficient to find the oscilla- 3)Equations (2.2)- (2.6) were obtained as the result of solution of the equation dd ~ = eE 1 under the assump- t yfl-u2 tion that E0 is small so that [u -vi « v. RADIATION OF TRANSVERSE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES 1167 tory part of the dipole moment cR with the aid of (2.3) and to calculate of the intensity of the dipole radiation; in the language of graphs, this would mean a restriction to diagrams a and b (Fig. 1). However, the electron under consideration moves in an essentially inhomogeneous plasma. Its inhomogeneity is brought about by oscillations of the electron density n in the wave (2.1), connected with the field of the wave by the equation div E = 4:rre (n - n) (2.5) The last condition is satisfied if the velocity of the charge is appreciably larger than the phase velocity of the plasma wave and also the mean thermal velocity of the electrons of the plasma, and if the angle J.1 is not close to rr/2. The condition (2.9) is necessary so that Eq. (2.6) can be used; this equation does not take spatial dispersion into account. 4l In accord with (2.5), (2.6), and (2.9), E changes in the plasma wave according to the law (n is the mean value of the electron density). The (2.10) dielectric constant, which depends on n, changes simultaneously with the change in density: Let us find the power which an electron moving according to (2.2) radiates in a medium with E of (2.6) the form (2 .1 0). This power Q is equal to the mean In addition to the electron in the plasma, the polar- work per unit time performed by the electron in ization produced by it also moves. Because of the motion in the electric field E created by it: inhomogeneity of E, a dipole moment is generated T/2 which partially (for a nonrelativistic electron, com- Q =-lim~ ~ dt~d3rE(r, t) j(r, t) pletely) cancels the dipole moment of the oscilla- T~oo -T/2 tions of the electron. A charge moving in a medium with E that is variable in time and space radiates transverse waves. The graph c of Fig. 1 corresponds to such = -lim <2~· \ d3k dw j (- k, - u') E (k, w), (2.11) T-+co It" j (r, t) = e (v - QR sin Qt) 6 (r - vt - R cos Qt), a mechanism of radiation. We note that the mech- (2.12) anism of radiation corresponding to graph c in and E ( k, w) and j ( k, w) are the Fourier components Fig. 1 has a well-known analog in the radiation of of the electric field and current density, respec- a charge in a layered medium (see [5- 8J). We limit tively. ourselves to the case in which the frequencies of To find the field E ( k, w), we use the Maxwell the radiated transverse waves appreciably exceed equation the frequencies of the longitudinal waves that create the density inhomogeneities. This case is the sim- ~E +grad div (e- 1) E- fJ2eE/fJt2 plest. Of course, the graph c also describes the case of comparable frequencies. = 4:rt (fJj/fJt- grad p). Of considerable significance is the fact that the phases of the oscillations of the electron and of the change in E are not independent. The total scattered radiation is not the sum of the radiation produced by the oscillations of the electron (graphs a, b) and the radiation due to the inhomogeneities of the medium (graph c). Interference of these radiations is appreciable. A charge moving according to (2.2) radiates (at an angle J.2 to the velocity v) a wave of frequency By substitution of (2 .10), we go over to the Fourier representation + . kiki - w2&ii { Eokt zEi (k, w) = (w i·0)2 _ k2 2mw2 [E; (k- kr, w - w1 ) + + - E; (k k 1• w w1)l - 4: jj(k, w)} (2.13) and then solve by the method of successive approximations. To find j ( k, w), we use (2.2) and (2.12). After substituting the solution (2.13) in (2.11) and keeping <02 = Qj(i -Vet (w2) v cos 'l't2). (2. 7) only terms proportional to E5, we find For simplicity, we restrict ourselves to plasma waves whose phase velocity is much less than the velocity of light (k1 » w 1), and also to the condition (see above) (2.14) (2.8) 4)This is not fundamental, and·the results are easily gen- or eralized to the case where one must take into account spatial (2.9) dispersion. 1168 A. GAILITIS and V. N. TSYTOVICH where (2.15) The integrand function (2.15) is the power radiated in the frequency range dw 2 and with wave vectors d 3k2. Account of the change in the plasma density would give second terms in the square brackets of Eq. (2.15). They are appreciable in the scattering of a plasma wave by a nonrelativistic electron (v « 1). As is seen from Eq. (2.15), the first term in it approaches zero simultaneously with v. Therefore, for v « 1, we have {3 ~ v/w 2 and Q ~ v 2. The two mechanisms of radiation cancel one another. It must be noted that this refers only to electrons. For ions, because of their large mass M, the conversion of the longitudinal wave to the transverse takes place only as the result of the inhomogeneous density in the plasma wave and is determined by Eq. (2.14) with the replacement of {3 by (2 .16) We assume that the directions of motion of the plasma waves are distributed isotropic ally. In astrophysical applications, the latter is not ob- vious, inasmuch as the magnetic field and the directional character of the discontinuities can have an effect on the distribution of the plasma waves. We note that the inhomogeneous distribu- tion of plasma waves can lead to polarization of the scattered radiation. We now limit ourselves to consideration of the isotropic distribution. To find the frequency spectrum of the transverse radiation Q ( w 2), we average Q over all angles J- 1: +1 oo =-} = Q ~ d cos 'l't1 Q ~ Q (w 2) dw2, (3.1) -1 0 W - Q (w2) = e41E62~;k:2rrco 2 2 (~' d cos '1't1 d cos '1't2 dcp (k 2 ~) 2/k~} + x [o (w 2 (1 - v cos '1't2) k1v cos '1't1) + 0 (w 2 (1 - v cos '1't2) - k1v cos 'l't1)] (3.2) ( cp is the angle between the planes in which the vectors k 1 , u and k2 , u lie). Calculation of the integral (3.2) leads to the expression Therefore, a nonrelativistic ion in a plasma wave produces transverse waves that are much larger (3.3) than those produced by the nonrelativistic electron. Only for the limit of ultrarelativistic ions, for which -J 1 - v2 ~ m/M, is there a dependence of the oscillations of the ion itself, and (2.16) is r e = _R;_ m' ffi2 (1- v) q = k1v ' > cD (r, q) = 0 for q 1, (3.4) violated. In the limit v « 1, we obtain the following ex- pressions for the intensity of radiation of electrons and ions, respectively: 5' where q is the ratio of the frequency of the radiated waves to the maximum possible frequency for given k 1 and v. The function
(y, q) for a number of
values of y, obtained with the help of (3.3). The (2.18) presence of two maxima in the curves of Fig. 4 is
both ions and electrons radiate at the frequency
w 2 = k 1v Ieos J.l when v « 1.
brought about by the presence of the two mechanisms of scattering considered. At ultrarelativistic energies ( y » 1), the principal role is played by
3. SCATTERING OF CHARGED PARTICLES BY
radiation from the oscillations of the electron.
ISOTROPICALLY DISTRIBUTED PLASMA
This radiation results in a broad smooth maximum.
WAVES
The narrow maximum at small q is brought about
by the mechanism that is similar to the mechanism
If a continuous spectrum of plasma waves is
of transition radiation (radiation from inhomogen-
incident .on the electr.on, rat~er than the ~lane mono- eities of the density produced by the plasma wave).
chromatic wave considered m the precedmg sec- Inasmuch as in the limit y - oo the latter radia-
tion,. the scattered radiation can be found by inte- tion has a constant intensity which does not increase
gratmg (2.14) over all the scattered waves.
with y, and a mean frequency, while in radiation
S)For small v ;S m/M, the effect of ions which disturb the compensation is important. Compensation is also destroyed for failure of the relation (2.9).
from the electronic oscillations, these quantities increase with increase in Y, in proportion to y 2,
the left maximum decreases as y - 00 and shifts
RADIATION OF TRANSVERSE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES
"'(J',Ij)
1169
17.5 FIG. 4
17.15
I;
to the left, and