Collisional Damping of Nonlinear Langmuir Wave in a Rarefied Plasma

抄録

The problem of the energy absorption of a monochromatic Langmuir wave of finite (but small) amplitude in a rarefied plasma, a problem which was first treated by Zakharov and Karpman (1962), is reexamined. Emphasis is laid on the requirement that the matching of the distribution function of the untrapped particles with the Maxwellian at a large velocity must be made more accurately than done previously. The calculation shows that the energy absorption rate of the wave of the amplitude φ₀ is proportional to φ₀^3⁄2, in contrast to the previous result which is proportional to φ₀^1⁄2.