Local transit-time damping in a magnetic field, and the arrest of lower-hybrid wave collapse

Abstract

The transit-time power dissipated locally within a coherent wave packet in the presence of ambient and induced magnetic fields is calculated analytically as a function of position via a perturbed-orbit approach, generalizing earlier results for unmagnetized interactions. The theory is used to investigate local damping in a nonlinearly-collapsing lower-hybrid (LH) wave packet, and hence to estimate the arrest scale of LH wave collapse in a thermal electron-ion plasma. It is shown that either electrons or ions can dominate damping, depending on the strength of the magnetic field and the electron and ion temperatures. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.