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Singh et al. 2001
Singh, N., Loo, S.M., Wells, B.E. and Lakhina, G.S. (2001). Evolution of electron beam generated waves resulting in transverse ion heating and filamentation of the plasma. Journal of Geophysical Research 106: doi: 10.1029/2000JA000335. issn: 0148-0227.

We present here a systematic simulational study on electron beam driven waves and their consequences in terms of plasma electrodynamics. The study is performed by using three-dimensional particle-in-cell code, parallelized to simulate a large volume of plasma. Our simulation shows that an initial electron beam of finite radius with beam velocity along the ambient magnetic field triggers a series of events in the evolution of the waves and the plasma. In the initial stage (t≤200 &ohgr;po-1, &ohgr;po being the electron plasma frequency with the total electron density no), high frequency waves near &ohgr;~&ohgr;po are driven. These waves progressively disappear giving way to the dominance of lower hybrid (LH) waves. The phase of the lower hybrid waves lasts over the time interval 200⪝t&ohgr;po⪝1000. In this time period the LH waves stochastically accelerate ions transverse to Bo, and the beam electrons are scattered outside the initial beam volume to occupy the entire volume of the simulation plasma. The ion acceleration leads to the formation of elongated tail in the perpendicular velocity distribution. The large-amplitude LH waves are seen to undergo a parametric decay into resonance cone waves at frequencies &ohgr;<&OHgr;i, the ion cyclotron frequency. Such extremely low-frequency (ELF) waves are the electrostatic version of the inertial Alfven waves. The phase of the strong LH waves is followed by a stage in which HF waves with frequencies &ohgr;-&ohgr;po appear again, but in this stage they are strongly modulated by the already present ELF waves and other low-frequency waves in the frequency range near the ion cyclotron frequency &OHgr;i and its harmonics. Beginning with the LH wave stage and continuing into the late stages of ELF waves, the plasma density is highly filamented and the filaments oscillate with the ELF frequencies. The relevance of our results to the observations on plasma waves from satellites is brought out. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union

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Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Auroral phenomena, Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma waves and instabilities, Space Plasma Physics, Numerical simulation studies
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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