A Simulation Approach to High-Frequency Plasma Waves

Abstract: Electrostatic waves in the form of Broadband Electrostatic Noise (BEN) have been observed in the Earth's auroral region associated with high geomagnetic activity. This broad frequency spectrum consists of three electrostatic modes, namely electron plasma, electron acoustic and beam-driven modes. These modes are excited in a plasma containing three electron components: hot, cool and beam electrons.A 1D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation was developed to investigate the characteristics of the electrostatic waves found in such a plasma. Dispersion, phase space and spatial electric field diagrams were constructed from the output of the PIC simulation which were used to describe the wave dispersion and spatial field structures found in a plasma. The PIC code used a three electron component plasma with Maxwellian distributions to describe the electron velocity distributions. Beam-driven waves were found to dominate the frequency spectrum while electron plasma and electron acoustic waves are damped for a high beam velocity. Furthermore, for a high beam velocity, solitary waves are generated by electron holes (positive potentials), giving rise to a bipolar spatial electric fi eld structure moving in the direction of the beam. Increasing the beam temperature allows the beam electrons to mix more freely with the hot and cool electrons, which leads to electron plasma and electron acoustic waves being enhanced while beam-driven waves are damped. Decreasing the beam density and velocity leads to damping of beam-driven waves, while electron plasma and electron acoustic waves are enhanced.Measurements in Saturn's magnetosphere have found the co-existence of two electron (hot and cool) components. The electron velocities are best described by a kappa-distribution (instead of a Maxwellian) which has a high-energy tail. Using an adapted PIC simulation the study of electron plasma and electron acoustic waves was extended by using a kappa-distribution to describe the electron velocities with low indices. Electron acoustic waves are damped over most wave number ranges. Electron plasma waves are weakly damped at low wave numbers and damped for all other wave numbers.