Abstract
The bremsstrahlung of an electron passing through a plasma under the cumulative influences of long range coulomb forces excerted by many other electrons in the medium is. considered. In this process, the medium exchanges a definite amount of momentum and energy with the radiating electron in the form, of a plasmon. The differential cross section is obtained for the process in which a photon is emitted in a given direction and energy while the radiating electron is deflected through a given angle after exciting or absorbing a plasmon. The processes may also be looked upon as the plasmon emission or absorption processes by anomalous Doppler effect if one imagines a moving 'atom' consisting of an electron and a plasmon. The radiation condition, which is the extension of the usual Cerencov condition in the plasma, is found to be |c/nυ±ωp/kυ+ (kp/k) Cosθp|≤1, where υ is the velbcity of the electron, n the refractive index, k the wave number of the emitted photon, (ωp, kp) the plasmon frequency and the wave number, and θp=υkp, the upper signs referring to the plasmon emission and the lower to the plasmon absorption.
